A Work in Progress
by One Minute
Summary: It's said that when you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes... A tale of a rookie and his experiences with the Teen Titans.
1. A Work In Progress

It's said that just before you die your entire life flashes before your eyes. Maybe this is true, but for me it is just the best times I see. I hang from a set of chains reaching up to the roof. A madman, Slade, stands before me. Not a scratch on him, through all my struggles and he stands there, pristine. He speaks, in that infuriatingly calm way, "Your journey is over, boy." He raises a dagger for the finishing blow, and as a last act of defiance I stare into his one eye even as he brings the weapon down. And then images, memories of happier times…

: T : T : T : T :

I faced off against my opponent, the match was called and within 30 seconds I was on the ground in agony, my arm pushed up behind my back. He leapt up, 1-0 easily. I stood slowly, trying to act cool and failing miserably.

This time I was ready, he slid in slicing his legs in an attempt to kick my legs from under me, I back flipped and landed a few feet away. I decided to try my luck with an attack, a straight punch.

It was caught and I was tossed over my opponents shoulder hitting the floor hard. 2-0.

The bystanders cheered for my opponent as I stood. He tried to rush me and for the first time I got a hit in. A kick to the ribs and I span away. He grabbed his side in pain and I went for another attack, I leapt and brought my foot down onto his left. He managed to block, barely. With another back flip I upper-cut him with a foot. He fell back and I gained some pride back. 2-1.

We each backed off to our corners and I studied my opponent carefully. He was thin and short with spiked black hair. His eyes were… concealed by an eye-mask. The judo or karate attire (or whatever it was) might seem a little ridiculous, right up until he kicked you in the face. And believe me when facing off against Robin it was only a matter of time before that happened.

In contrast I wore no different clothes, well different for a super hero anyway. I wore a dark blue jumpsuit, so dark it was almost black. In place of where the Boy Wonder's eye-mask was I had a mask that concealed from below my nose upwards.

The fourth round was called and I stepped forward. Robin leapt forward. You remember that thing about facing off against Robin and being kicked in the head? I don't actually remember it, but apparently… Well, I think you can guess the rest.

I awoke to the faces of Robin and Beast Boy a few seconds later.

"Dude, that was so awesome, you should have seen you fly!" The green elf jabberer, making a headache grow somewhere in the region of my right ear.

Robin looked a little concerned, not because I might be hurt rather that I had been unable to stop his attack. "You're too slow, even Beast Boy could have stopped that,"

"Hey!" yelped the elf. Robin smirked before continuing.

"I think that's enough for today, but you still need practice if you wanna be a real member of this team."

He said that, but I could tell he was secretly impressed with me.

: T : T : T : T :

"I'm not impressed by the rookie. He's ok but he lacks any great skill without that suit of his."

"Same could be said of Beast Boy and his morphing powers Robin," Raven replied

motionless as ever. "The fact of the matter is, he does have the suit. He has some skill with it, enough to qualify being a Teen Titan." She pulled her hood over her head. "I'm going to meditate… Azarath Metrion Zinthos." And with her magic words obsidian covered her body and she 'slid' through the floor.

Sarcastically Robin replied, "Raven has spoken…"

Although he waited until he knew she was no longer listening.

: T : T : T : T :

The tower's alarm went off. Everyone was already gathered in the main room. On the screen, were previously Beast Boy had been losing to Cyborg at some racing game, now had the words "Sector 15" flashing. "Titans Trouble!" Shouted Robin.

"Dude, do you have to say that _every time _the alarm goes off? I mean it's pretty obvious."

"But Beast Boy, if Robin does not say the 'Titans Trouble" how will we know there is trouble?"

Before Beast Boy could respond Robin shouted "Titans Go!" and everybody scampered for the exits.

Cinderblock was making a mess, causing havoc down a street. He picked up a car but before he could toss it, black engulfed it and the automobile was torn from his grasp.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you to tidy up after yourself?" Robin did the usual smartass remark, followed by the trademark "Titans go!"

Cinderblock, with his arms still raised up from holding the car, was engulfed by a mixture of starbolts, sonic waves and explosive birarangs.

Raven added to the fusillade by dropping the car back onto Cinderblock. With a CRASH! Then a BOOM! And it exploded sending fire and smoke up into the air.

There was a moments silence as everyone waited for the smoke to clear and see if Cinderblock was still up.

…

Naturally he was.

He roared and stomped his way over to the group, fist swinging. We scattered. He punched at Robin first who just jumped over the granite monster and extended his staff.

Beast Boy morphed into a snake and slithered up the creature's body. When he got to its head he transformed into a rhino, hoping to overbalance the rock golem. Cinderblock sagged but still had the strength to reach up and toss the changeling into a wall.

Robin attacked from behind, a great swipe from his rod, but Cinderblock barely noticed. He swung a great fist around and the Boy Wonder had to retreat. A double attack from Starfire and Cyborg sent the monster reeling.

He grabbed a lamppost, tore it out of the ground and knocked the two strongest titans flying. A piece of sidewalk debris flew towards him, encased in black telekinesis.

He hefted his lamppost like a baseball player and hit the piece of pavement. He then flung his 'bat' at Raven.

--This is where I took part. Pay attention and see if you can spot my mistake.

My suit gives me powers: flight and the ability to open sort of black holes. Plus a slight increase of strength, nothing like Starfire or Cyborg, but a little boost nevertheless. It doesn't, however, give me much protection from impact.

Now watch carefully--

Like a good team member I flung an arm in the direction of the projectile and opened a hole in the path of the flying lamppost. Next, Robin distracted the monster with a couple of explosives to the side of the face. As the creature turned I swooped in with the sole of my boot and kicked him. Robin got into a position that he could trip the beast and finally, foolishly, I swung my mildly-stronger-than-human, no-protection fist into the face of the rock skinned Cinderblock.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

And painful.

Cinderblock went down, thanks to Robin's trip.

I froze in mid-air, my fist still in the position of punching Cinderblock.

I bit my lip as my team mates finished off Cinderblock. Still frozen in the air.

Raven wrapped up Cinderblock with the road, just in case he should wake before the authorities arrived. Beast Boy and Starfire cheered. I was still frozen in the same position. Trying desperately not to cry.

Cyborg was the first to notice. "What's up Void?"

I may have whimpered.

Starfire was next. "Friend, why are you not commencing in the merriment due to the capture of a villain?"

I couldn't take it much longer. Slowly I moved from my frozen position and without a word offered my injured hand forward.

"You punched Cinderblock… clever." Despite Ravens sarcasm, my hand was encased in darkness as she 'fixed' it. "Baby." She walked away, back to the T-car.

"You are injured!" exclaimed Starfire as she sped towards me. She hugged me, and without realising, possibly caused more damage. "Do you wish me to nurse you back to health?"

"He's fine Star. Aren't you Void?"

I nodded emphatically. She smiled and let go. "Glorious! I shall sing the Tamranian song of good recovery, all one-hundred-and-nineteen verses!" She took a deep breath.

"I don't think that's necessary, I wasn't injured much anyway!" I said quickly.

"Nevertheless, I shall sing!" She took another breath. "Please, why is everyone covering their ears?"

: T : T : T : T :

When we returned to the Tower Beast Boy came up to me. "Dude! You have to come and play this awesome new game we got!" It turned out to be some sort of fighting game. Now, I love computer games… I'm just not all that good at them. Beast Boy on the other hand seems to spend his entire life playing against Cyborg. Cyborg wins the vast majority of these games. I think he was just looking to trounce the noobie. Little did he know just how bad I was at this sort of thing.

After the third consecutive defeat without B.B. losing any health I decided to call it a day. The changeling snickered as I turned my back on him. I walked over to the kitchen, where Cyborg was making waffles.

"Hey Cy! I got me a winning streak! Wanna see f you can beat me?" Beast Boy called from the gamestation.

Cyborg turned to me. "Tell me you didn't let Beast Boy beat you."

I looked to the floor in shame.

"I'm gonna have to teach you to play properly man. Can't have B.B. thinking he's any good! Tomorrow dawg, me, you and 4 hours of Mega-smash-ninjas 3!" He let out the customary "Boo-Yah!" before going over to trounce the changeling on said game.

Starfire drifted over. "Why is Cyborg in the 'high spirits'?" I told her about the 4 hours of … fun … we were going to have tomorrow. "That reminds me friend Void, tomorrow I wish to go out and do the 'ing of the shop'." I'm not entirely sure how that reminded her of shopping, but she went on. " Raven does not wish to go, Robin is too busy and Cyborg and Beast Boy never seem to go in the shops of my choice. So, will you go with me?" She smiled and held her hands behind her back. I couldn't say no to that, could I? "Glorious!" She floated off to watch Cyborg beat Beast Boy.

"Void." An expressionless voice from behind me. I turned to see Raven sitting at the table in the corner of the room. "As the… 'newbie'… you have to a few chores." She handed me a long list of things to do. "I'd get up early tomorrow, if I were you." Was that a hint of a smile on her lips? She went back to her book and I shrugged.

I turned to see Robin suddenly standing behind me. I jumped about out of my skin before recovering my composure. He didn't seem to notice. "You made a rookie's mistake in today's mission, Void. We Titans are expected to be above such blunders. I expect you to do some extra training with me tomorrow. Meet me in the gym bright and early." He walked back to the computer where he was filling in a report of the fight against Cinderblock.

For a second I stood still blinking from the four Titans, who, in quick succession, had filled my next day up.

Tomorrow was gonna be a looooong day.


	2. A Long Day

It's said that just before you die your whole life flashes before your eyes. If that's true then I'm not going to die … yet. But, as I clean the ridiculously huge main screen, it still feels like I am. The day had started so promisingly… No I lie, I knew it was going to be difficult from the start. Just this side of 48 hours without sleeping it seems a lot worse…

: T : T : T : T :

23:00, 15 hours of being awake. Just enough to be uncomfortable.

Just as I was going to my room to sleep, Cyborg snuck furtively up to me.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

I looked at him, tip-toeing. I raised an eyebrow. "Stealthy." I said sarcastically.

"Listen," he whispered, "B.B.'s gone to bed, so now's the perfect time to practice!"

I sighed, and reluctantly I nodded.

"BOO-" he stopped his shout. "boo-yah!" he whispered.

He switched on the gamestation and inserted the Mega-smash-ninjas 3 disk.

He turned to me, sitting on the sofa. Teacher-mode. I swear I could almost see the mortar-board and teacher-cape. "Ok, the basics of Mega-smash-ninjas 3, it all begins with the joypad. So-called because it brings hours of joy to all gamers … and it's a sorta pad thingy. ANYWAY take note of the X, circle, square and triangle along with the four arrow buttons, there are also some others but we'll come to those later…"

Later. "…and that is how you execute a 'Stealth-Crusher'. Next, the 'Power-punch-flip', first get in _this_ position," the character on screen knelt, "next press the X followed closely by…"

Later still. "And _that_ is all the moves in the game. Next we come onto something called 'counter-moves' which are basically…"

Even later. "And now you're ready to fight!" He passed me a joy-pad and activated the 'versus' mode. We played a few matches, which he won. But at least I managed to hit him with a few moves.

Eventually, after I finally managed to beat him, just. "Ok I think that's enough for today, see if you can beat B.B. later ok? I'm going to recharge now. Later dawg." And with that he walked out of the main room.

I spotted the list of chores Raven had given me, on the cushion by my side. Since I was up I decided that I may as well start. I sighed and looked at the first item on the list. Washing up. Shouldn't be too hard, I used to quite enjoy doing the dishes.

I looked at the sink.

I looked at the pile of plates by the sink.

I looked at the piles of dirty stuff all around the kitchen area.

I sighed and stood up.

3:00, 19 hours of being awake.

I started doing the dishes.

I continued doing the dishes.

The Titan alarm went off. The main screen flashed 'Sector 5'. The titans, in various states of tired-ness came into the main room. Robin, fully decked out as the Boy Wonder, was first, Cyborg, who always wore nothing was next. Raven teleported through the floor fully dressed too. Starfire was pulling on her boots and Beast Boy was last, still in his pyjamas.

I raised an eyebrow. He looked down, turned red and then ran out of the room.

"Titans! You know the drill."

Starfire, Raven and I flew out of the window and Cyborg and Robin went to their vehicles.

3.45, 19 hours, 45 minutes of being awake.

The night air managed to wake me up a bit as we flew to what turned out to be a early morning bank robbery. Normal crooks, they barely lasted 5 minutes.

We all arrived at near-enough the same time. Robin walked through the broken open bank doors first followed by the rest of us. The three robbers, dressed in black looked back at us in fear.

"Bank's closed, gentlemen." The Boy Wonder said before charging forward. The rest of us followed.

SMACK! Robin knocked one of the thieves out with one punch.

Starfire flew to the remaining two. She tried to land, but misjudged the slipperyness of the marble floor. One leg shot out forward. Right into a robbers crotch.

CRUNCH.

Everyone in the room flinched as he slid to the floor, cross-eyed.

The final robber fled to the open doors. Just then Beast Boy arrived in bird-form. He saw the robber, and morphed into a stegosaurus. The thief tried to stop but due to the slippery floor just managed to slide at a high speed right into the green dinosaur's side.

SWWWWSSSH-THUD!

And they were all down.

We handcuffed the three and then deposited them in the gaol. Then about ten minutes after we had left the tower, we made our way back there. I decided now was a good time to have a rest, in a couple of hours Robin would want me to train with him.

As we landed back in the main room, Beast Boy was moaning. "I don't even see why we have to answer calls like that. I bet the police could have handled that easily."

"Indeed they could have friend Beast Boy, but there was not enough information on the suspects, they could have been metahumans with terrible weapons!"

I left the argument and went to my room.

Just as I was going to lie my head down there was a chime at the door. I went and pushed the open button.

Robin stood there. "Time for training, Void." I looked at my clock, sighed and followed him down to the training room.

4:00, 20 hours without any sleep.

He started by teaching me a few moves. In my sleep deprived mind I started to confuse this training with the moves that Cyborg had taught me on the fighting game.

After a while he decided to test me out. I ran at him with one fist raised, I punched. WHAP! He blocked.

A knee to the gut. THUD! He blocked again. He slid backwards from the impact though.

I surprised him next when I knelt, leapt out with a punch. THUD! Caught him on the jaw, sending him flying back. With his body flying back and mine above, I moved my feet to his chest. Using his body as a jump board I somersaulted back. Meanwhile he was sent crashing to the floor by my jump. I landed in a pose as he slid across the mats on the floor.

He stood up rubbing his jaw, "You've been playing too many computer games, Void. Nice though." He stood into a kung-foo pose and I knew that I was about to get the beating of my life.

Later. As I stood up form the floor after the last attack. I think Robin seemed mildly impressed. I had managed to get an attack in, even as he was kicking me to the floor. I had grabbed a leg and basically fallen over. It still managed to get the Boy Wonder down though.

Even later. We stood facing each other. "I think that's enough for now. You've shown some excellent progress today." And with that he walked out of the gym.

A beat.

I collapsed.

Raven teleported through the roof. "I can't help but notice you haven't done the chores yet…" I climbed unsteadily to my feet. "If you want them done by the end of the day I suggest you get going." I nodded and walked… limped out of the gym.

8:00, 24 hours without sleep.

Only Robin can train for four hours and still manage anything productive for the rest of the day. Does doing chores count as constructive?

As I cleaned, the eyes of my mask must have fooled everyone into thinking that I was perfectly awake. Underneath, my eyes were bloodshot and it felt like the bags under my eyes had bags under them.

I hoovered the main room. After I had hoovered the same spot for about 20 minutes Starfire came up to me, with a look of concern on her face. I smiled goofily and waved erratically.

She ducked under my hand after a particularly vigorous swing. She waved hesitantly back. "Friend Void, are you okay?"

I nodded emphatically and almost fell over. I tried to talk but my mouth was so dry it came out as a croak. It seemed I had gone through the almost-dead phase of tiredness and went into the drunken-tired phase.

Starfire said something. My brain couldn't register. "Smaller words." I mumbled.

"Time for shop, yes?" she said.

"Ah."

We stood there for a while. "Void?"

I shook my head and said "ok." I thought I had already said this but I must have been hallucinating. Thinking back this is quite likely… especially the bit with the mauve elephant.

Starfire flew towards the window. I tried to join her. After I had jumped a few times I really concentrated and tried again. Somehow I ended up jumping into a window and then I fell onto my butt.

She decided the stairs were safer. I got up and joined her. Walking.

10:00, 26 hours without sleep.

Again once we were out in the fresh air my mind became a bit clearer. I remembered how to fly and we flew together to the mall.

When we arrived I immediately made my way to a café, "One sec Starfire."

I ordered a triple espresso.

The smell coming from it alone woke me up. Hesitantly, I brought the cup to my lips.

And drank.

There was surprisingly little liquid in the cup so it didn't last long. Suddenly I felt a lot better. Awake. Everything was clear.

I threw the cup towards a bin. My arm was vibrating so much it landed in a plant pot about three feet from the bin. I didn't notice.

I went to Starfire. And then we went into a shop, and she bought some clothes. And then we went into another shop and she bought some shoes. And then we went into another shop and she bought a bag. And thenwewentintoanothershopandsheboughtsomefoodbutiididnthaveanybecauseiwasfullofcaffeineandithinkwemayhavegoneintoanothershopbuticantreallyrememberbecause

I stumbled and only just caught myself. "Arreee yyyyyooooouuuuuu oooooooooooookkkkaaaaaaaayyy vvvvvvvvvvvoooooooooooiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidddddddddddd?" Said Starfire as she bent down to check on me. Everything was suddenly moving so slowly. I stood up at normal speed. Starfire slowly… slowly … finally straightened up. I tapped my foot, impatient. "VVVVVVVVVVVVooooooooooooooiiiiiiiiiiiiidddddddddd?"

Behind her a small electrical store was being robbed at gunpoint. My eyes widened and I flew over there as fast as possible.

Behind me the tamaranian turned slowly.

I flew into the store, grabbed the robber's gun. I created a black hole and threw the weapon in. After closing the hole I grabbed the man's arm and shoved it up behind his back. I dragged him out of the store and dropped him in front of a slowly moving policeman.

I waited.

The policeman slowly widened his eyes in shock. The robber was somewhat dazed. I grinned and zipped back to Starfire.

"WWWWWWhhhhhhhaaaaaattttt jjjjuuuusssttt hhaappened, Void?" The world went back to normal speed.

I blinked, and shrugged.

"Ok!" She smiled, cute as ever. "I have everything I wish, it is your turn to do the shopping!"

"I, uh, don't really have any shopping to do."

"Oh! Well let us journey back to the tower then. Many thanks for coming to the mall with me, friend Void!"

The trip back was terrible. It seemed like my stomach was trying to crawl up my throat, and it was fighting with my lungs.

I did manage to get back without throwing up, but I had to go straight to the toilet. Black gunk came from my mouth, so much black crap. I swear the tiny amount of espresso I had drunk must have bred in my stomach to allow that much rubbish to come out.

Never again.

I will never drink coffee again.

I made my way back to my room for a well earned rest.

14:00, 30 hours without sleep.

In my bed, finally.

And then my head started to hurt. THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! It sounded like a person with a huge mallet was trying to hammer his way into my brain.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

A caffeine hangover. Ugh.

And then a terrible wailing. The Titan siren was going off. Clutching my head I went to see what the trouble was.

14:30, 30 hours, 30 minutes without sleep.

I walked in to see the Titans already congregated. Robin had already briefed them.

"Void, we need to get there as fast as possible, so I'll have to brief you on the way ok?" I nodded, "Titans go!"

And we did.

"_This thing is a monster; it doesn't seem to have any feelings or emotion. It just is. It sucks kids into it, for some unknown purpose. We also think it has healing ability of some sort. As far as we know it doesn't work for anyone, but we can't know that. We need to finish it quickly and without damaging anyone it has captured. Over and out." _Robin's description of Kardiac, from pictures I'd seen, it basically looks like a giant heart. With added tentacles.

I tried to wake myself up as much as possible on the way over. But it wasn't working, my eyes felt like they were trying to shut themselves. The air had cleared my headache and now I just wanted to sleep.

We arrived in a playground, little children screaming and running everywhere. Kardiac was chasing after them; even as we arrived it managed to grab one child with a tentacle. It started to drag the child towards it.

Without any remark, smart or otherwise, Robin started the action. He had come on his R-cycle, so he used a see-saw as a ramp to get a decent view of the monster. He leapt off the back of the bike, unsheathing an extended Birdarang as he went flying towards Kardiac.

SLASH!

Using the birdarang as a sword he cut the red monsters tentacle in two. His bike safely landed itself using small rockets on either side. The Boy Wonder grabbed the kid Kardiac had tried to ensnare and fled.

In complete silence except the 'THUD. THUD.' Kardiac moved after Robin. Starfire pelted it with starbolts, but the creature just kept going after Robin and the child.

A tentacle whipped out after the fleeing hero, so I opened a hole up in its path. The hole swallowed the tentacle before I closed it, effectively chopping off the limb.

This gave Robin a chance to get the child to the newly-arrived T-car. Cyborg and Raven were busy ushering the kids in so they could be kept from harm's way.

Beast Boy arrived and immediately turned from hawk into a gorilla. He gripped the pulsating creature, jumped high into the air and threw it into the ground. Then as he fell towards it he turned into an elephant crushing Kardiac with his elephant butt.

But Kardiac was still fighting. With a re-grown tentacle it gripped the changeling and threw him off.

Then Robin came back into the fight, sword held loosely at his side. He threw birdarang after birarang but still Kardiac kept going. Dodging and slashing tentacles Robin charged. From the other side Starfire was also charging slicing apart a tentacle with eye beams. She was charging her starbolts, her hands encased with the green light.

I saw an opportunity and joined the attack from above. I judged the moment and stopped flying, dropping foot-first towards my target.

THUD!

In a three pronged attack, we all struck simultaneously. Kardiac was torn apart by the ferocity of the Boy Wonder's slashing sword, Star's starbolt encased punches and my freefall kick.

I opened black holes around the playground and we threw the parts of Kardiac into oblivion. "It's the only option. It can't have been alive and it was certainly mindless, it's the only way to deal with a self-healing robot. Annihilation."

Having destroyed the mindless, mechanical monstrosity we returned to the Tower. The rush I had got from fighting had quickly turned into me being completely knackered again.

15:30, 31 hours 30 minutes without sleep.

Beast Boy stood in the way as I tried to get out of the main room after the debriefing. "Hey noobie… wanna play another game of Mega-Smash-Ninjas 3? I promise to go easy on ya!" He grinned like a maniac. Over his shoulder Cyborg was nodding and gesturing to kick his butt.

"Actually B.B. I'm a bit-" I started but he cut me off.

"Good man!" and with that he and Cyborg dragged me over to play computer games.

I don't know how anyone can play games for 9 hours… but somehow they managed it, because after they finally let me go I checked the clock and

00:30, 40 hours and 30 minutes and no sleep.

I was just making my way to bed when I saw Raven standing in the doorway. The list of chores in her hand. Only two of the many … many chores were crossed off. "You have until I get up to meditate in the morning." She said and with a swish of her cloak she was gone.

And I started on the list…

8:00 48 hours without sleep.

I finally finished cleaning the main screen. I fell to the floor and

Slept.

: T : T : T : T :

Raven went into the sparklingly clean main room. She saw the list of chores on the work surface. All the chores were ticked off. She saw the rookie's slumbering form. She smiled.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"


	3. A Christmas Carol

Authors Note: Yes, I realise Christmas was some time ago. Maybe by the time anyone reads this it will be Christmas 2006? On with the show…

Christmas in the Titan Tower is an important time for the teens, for Starfire it is still relatively new, Beast Boy is like a kid when it comes to presents and Cyborg gets to act like a child again. Even Robin enjoys the holiday, the other Titans consider Christmas to be equal to Robin's birthday. He doesn't allow anyone to know his real birthday for fear of giving away his secret identity. Raven, well Raven tries to enjoy herself but there is always going to be that part of her that keeps her emotions in check. That has to. But the Tower is a happy place at Christmas.

: T : T : T : T :

Starfire entered the huge doors of the Entrance Hall of the Tower. Over her shoulder was a Christmas tree, the mother of all trees. It was huge. She dragged it up the stairs, up to the main room, spraying needles everywhere.

: T : T : T : T :

In his dark laboratory, Cyborg added an attachment to his sonic cannon. CH-TUNG! Locked and loaded.

: T : T : T : T :

Starfire pulled the top half of the tree through the doors to the main room, where it stuck. "EEK!" her arm was pulled almost out of the socket and she landed on her butt. She tugged but it was resolutely holding on to the door.

: T : T : T : T :

Cyborg threw a belt of suspiciously grenade shaped objects over his shoulders. He got to his feet.

: T : T : T : T :

Beast Boy saw, from the stairs, the huge tree stuck in the Main Room's doors. He grinned. He morphed into a rhino and charged up the rest of the stairs at the trapped Christmas Tree.

: T : T : T : T :

Starfire pulled but no avail. Behind her Robin spat on his hands, rubbed them together and then gripped the Christmas tree as well. Raven sat by herself at a table, book held in one hand but her eyes were on the struggling pair and the Christmas tree.

: T : T : T : T :

Cyborg charged up his cannon, strips of red light going down into the attachment . Fully charged and he stalked out of the room.

: T : T : T : T :

I saw Starfire and Robin struggling and decided to go over and help. Just as I was about to grab the tree…

…Beast Boy charged across the short distance between the stairs and the stuck tree. Just as he was about to hit it…

…Raven's eyes suddenly went white, she said "Azarath Metrion Zinthos." Black telekinesis encased the tree, and began to pull…

…Beast Boy's eyes widened as he saw the tree become encased in Raven's magic and slide quickly out of the doorway…

… Starfire, Robin and I all let go and watched as the tree slid out of the doorway quickly, we turned back to the door as we heard a sudden stampeding…

…SMASH! Beast Boy crashed into the three Titans sending all four up into the air. He morphed back to elf mid-air and they all crashed to the ground together.

"Strike." Raven chuckled, hiding her smile behind a dainty hand. Us four Titans on the floor shook our heads, trying to work out exactly what had happened. This just made Raven laugh more.

Robin jumped to his feet and gentlemanly offered Starfire his hand, which she took and he pulled her to her feet. I put out my hand, for him to help _me _up… which he ignored.

I sighed and got to my feet. Raven used her magic to put the tree up in the corner. Then we walked over to our piles of presents. Beast Boy practically ran to them then morphed into a gorilla to carry them all. We all gathered around the tree putting our presents underneath. All five of us.

"Where is friend Cyborg?" asked Starfire.

He appeared in the door. "Right here." He wasn't smiling. Where his sonic cannon normally would have been he had a huge long gun. It was glowing a bright blue. He aimed the huge thing in our direction. "Boo-yah." He said quietly. The end of the weapon opened up glowing brightly. Our eyes widened.

And from the end of it shot huge snakes of tinsel, covering the tree from head to toe. His other hand pulled baubles from a belt over his chest, these he threw in a seemingly endless stream at the tree.

We moved out of the way so that Cyborg could have a better shot at the gigantic Christmas tree.

Eventually the glow faded from his cannon and he had to stop throwing baubles. He had run out of decorations. The attachment to the sonic cannon dropped off and he tossed the belt of his shoulders.

He pushed a button on his chest and a panel slid slowly open. Inside, something was glowing so brightly I couldn't see it. "Starfire, you want to do the honours?" He took the radiant object and gave it to Starfire who flew up to the top of the tree and placed the star at the top of the tree. She flew back down and joined the group staring at the tree in wonder.

"…" I was speechless, it was beautiful.

"Dude, that is so awesome."

"Glorious!"

"Nice."

"Good job, Cyborg."

"BOO-YAH!" he shouted and then added, "Now let's do the rest of the Tower!"

We all grabbed decorations and got to work.

: T : T : T : T :

Pretty quickly the entire tower was done, even the outside had some decorations, thanks to those of us who could fly. Every room was decorated, and Beast Boy had forced us all to wear Christmas hats. Raven had found the one that said "Bah Humbug." Beast Boy called her Scrooge and hid it.

The weeks up to Christmas, as ever, passed remarkably quickly. Before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve, and time for the Titan's annual Winter Party. Public relations were important so the rich and famous were invited to a gathering in the Tower.

: T : T : T : T :

As the noobie I got the job of standing outside and welcoming them into the Tower. Lucky me.

I was wearing a tuxedo, like everyone, but I had to wear my all-in-one Void suit underneath to hide my face. It looked…

Ridiculous.

At least Robin could just wear his eye-mask, I had to wear everything. Damn costumes.

The first limo rolled to a stop in front of me. The door opened and a white haired man walked out, with a lady on his arm. The mayor.

Possibly.

I went with a general, "Welcome to Titan's Tower, sir." He smirked, and then I noticed what I had presumed was a big necklace, but turned out to be the Mayor's chain…

Around the woman's neck.

Shit.

The mayor was a lady.

I turned to her, "Welcome to Titan's Tower, ma'am." And hoped to hell that she wouldn't say anything. Thankfully she just raised her eyebrows and walked past me.

A good start then.

Thankfully nothing more went particularly badly, and soon enough I was allowed upstairs into the main room and the party.

Everyone was in suits and ball gowns, even Cyborg had made the effort, squeezing his huge frame into a tux. Robin and Beast Boy were also wearing suits, I smirked. As difficult as it must have been for Cyborg to get the right sized suit, the same could be said for the small B.B. and Boy Wonder. Or not, but they are both quite small.

Starfire was resplendent in a purple dress, Robin was following her round like a lost puppy. Raven didn't seem to be anywhere.

After a little while I realised, this wasn't a party. It was just boring. I decided to go and get some fresh air.

The top of the Tower was dark and cold but not uncomfortably so. It was a place to go to think, or if living with five other teenagers became too much to handle, it was a place to rest.

Raven was sat, with her legs dangling over the side of the building. She had her usual robe on, with the hood up. She didn't seem to be meditating so I went and sat next to her. We sat in silence as we both looked out over the city. Little twinkling lights lined the streets, traffic drove around on the road, adding to the beauty when viewed here.

One of the nice things about being around Raven is the quiet. Most of the time she doesn't feel the need to say anything, it's not an awkward silence. Just a quiet.

Or not.

"I hate this party." She didn't even turn to me, she just said the words looking out over the city. "We hold it as if we need these people's permission to keep going."

I was quiet. If she wanted a response, I suspect she would have asked a question. We sat in silence again. Until-

There was a small light in the sky, getting bigger. I raised an eyebrow and went to speak but Raven brought a finger to her lips. The light seemed to be coming straight for the tower. She got up, gestured for me to follow and together we hid behind a vent on the far side of the roof.

As the light got closer, we could see it was some sort of hovercraft. After a few more seconds it got to the tower, turned sideways and landed. On the side of the craft was a big yellow H in a hexagon. "H.I.V.E." whispered Raven.

The side opened up and out hopped two H.I.V.E. guards in their yellow armour. They checked both ways before waving for someone inside the craft to come out. A giant of a man jumped out. He had ginger hair, something of a beard and huge rippling muscles. He wore a black outfit, like a spy, he also had a headset with a microphone.

Mammoth.

The two H.I.V.E. guards jumped back in the hovercraft, it lifted off and jetted out of the area. Mammoth made his way to the entrance to the tower, cracking just about all of the joints in his body as he made his way over.

Silently I flew behind him, brought my leg back and WHAM! Kicked him in the side of his face. I was quite pleased when he almost fell down clutching his head.

"Wrong party to gate crash, buddy," I said.

"I'll crash you!" he shouted a hilarious and cunning comeback, running forward.

I flew out of his reach smirking. "How're you gonna do that?"

"RAAAAAARRGH!" He ran forward again, jumped this time…

…and came _this_ close to nearly hitting me as I flew back. As he fell back to the tower I gave him another kick, to the gut. This didn't actually seem to do anything, the packed muscle acted like armour to my blow.

"Heh heh heh! I don't need to stand around here fighting with you. I can just cause havoc downstairs." He laughed and made his way back to the door.

I flew around him to hover in front of the door, arms outstretched in an effort to stop him going through.

He merely grabbed my body, which felt like a punch, and smacked me against the ground with a grunt.

Through the haze that was my eyesight I saw Raven appear behind Mammoth with a Chimney stack or something in her telekinetic grip. SMASH! It crashed into the beasts back. He rocked forward, let go of me and turned to face Raven.

He swung a fist at her. At the last second she blocked with a shield of obsidian.

This fight was not going to go well for us, although we might have the advantage normally, because Mammoth didn't have to beat the crap out of us to complete his objective. Presumably, he just had to ruin the party downstairs.

Raven glided away from Mammoth, already choosing something else to throw at the H.I.V.E. student. But there was very little up here on the rooftop.

I got to my feet just as Mammoth turned back towards the door. "Annoying insects!" he shouted as he swung another fist in my direction. I ducked under it and tried to punch him in the chest.

He caught my fist and threw me sideways off of the tower.

: T : T : T : T :

Robin stood talking to the mayor. "Well, yes ma'am I believe strongly that the Titans save more money than they take up due to damage."

The mayor nodded and said something. Robin didn't catch this because he saw a tuxedoed Void falling past the window. "Umm… ex-excuse me please mayor." He walked calmly out of the Main Room door and then ran wildly up the stairs to the rooftop.

: T : T : T : T :

As I screamed and the ground rushed up to meet me, I remembered I could fly. I righted myself in mid-air and flew back up to the roof. I increased my speed to maximum, so I was practically blurring up the side of the tower.

Mammoth obviously knew I could fly so he looked over the Tower to see what had happened.

CRACK! My fist collided with his skull.

He rose up about a metre into the air before I kicked him in the gut back to the ground of the tower. He slid a couple of metres before coming to a stop.

He got to his feet steadily. "Now we're talking!" he said, glad of a challenge.

I panted and faced off against the towering monster. As he ran towards me I wondered where Raven had got to. As he pulled his fist back to hit me in the face I dived out of the way. He turned and snarled "I thought you were gonna be a tough guy?"

: T : T : T : T :

Raven teleported into the main room and looked about for the remaining Titans. She tried to grab each of them in turn, without actually telling them what the problem was. She didn't want any of the rich or famous to know about Mammoth on the roof.

: T : T : T : T :

Robin ran the last few steps up to the roof and burst through the door. He was greeted by the sight of Mammoth trying to dig a whole in the roof.

With my head.

He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and grabbed a birdarang. Robin is always prepared. He threw it, the projectile collided with Mammoth's head and bounced off.

"Heh heh heh!" Mammoth chuckled despite the pain he must have been feeling by now in his head. "Fresh meat!" With this he charged at Robin who got into a crouch and, from some concealed pocket, whipped out a bo-staff.

He rolled under Mammoth's fist, whacked him in the ribs, back and then head in quick succession. As Mammoth turned to face him again, the Boy Wonder used the staff hit the backs of Mammoth's knees, sending him to the ground. He then kicked the villain in the chest knocking him backwards.

Again, Mammoth laughed. "Finally, someone who'll FIGHT me, instead of poncing around flying!"

: T : T : T : T :

Raven had got Cyborg and Starfire to understand, but Beast Boy was reluctant to go anywhere. He was having talks with a director about a future film career. Eventually Cyborg just grabbed the changeling by the arms and lifted him up.

The four Titans went out onto the staircase.

: T : T : T : T :

Robin was doing wonders out on the rooftop, evading each of Mammoth's blows, and returning the odd one. But for each of the punches Mammoth threw he was getting closer to hitting the Boy Wonder, it was only a matter of time.

Finally Robin couldn't dodge anymore, and he had to block with his rod. Mammoth hit it with such force that the weapon broke in two and Robin flew a few feet back from the impact.

He patted his pockets, but he knew that he had no other weapons. Mammoth, realising this grinned and charged forward. He punched, but Robin back-flipped away, he punched with his left and Robin back-flipped again. They repeated this again and again all the way across the Tower's roof before Robin ran out of room and had to stop.

There was nowhere for him to run. He was trapped on the ledge.

Raven chose that moment to teleport through the roof with the other Titans. "It's over Mammoth." She said.

He just grinned a manic smile and said. "Too late!" before he knocked Robin off the edge of the tower.

Starfire flew past them all over the Tower's edge with a shout of "Robin!" before she disappeared.

Cyborg levelled his sonic cannon at Mammoth.

Mammoth pressed a button on his headset.

"Say night-night." Said Cyborg just before he fired his sonic cannon.

A piece of tinsel shot out, made it halfway towards Mammoth before it gave up and fell to the floor. The Titans prat-falled.

The H.I.V.E. hover craft arrived behind Mammoth, silent.

"Nighty-night, Titans!" shouted Mammoth, laughing at his …intelligence… and before anyone could stop him he had jumped aboard the craft and jetted away.

Starfire came back up onto the roof holding Robin in her arms. I stumbled to my feet.

The rich people downstairs? They were unaware of the danger they were very nearly in.

: T : T : T : T :

In the H.I.V.E. Hovercraft an agent asked Mammoth, "Was the mission a success?"

"Yup!" He grinned and gave a thumbs up.

The agent turned to the other occupant of the hold, "What about you?"

"You bet, those snot-faced fart-bags won't know what happened!" Gizmo sat back with his arms behind his head.

: T : T : T : T :

The rich and famous went back to their mansions, once again impressed with the hospitality of the Titans.

The Titans tidied up and went to bed.

In the morning, on Christmas Day, Starfire and Beast Boy were outside the Main Room, restless with excitement. The Titan's had made an agreement that on Christmas Day nobody would go into the main room until everyone was gathered outside. To ensure this, Cyborg had fitted a special lock on the door, that would only open when all Titans had put in their codes.

This ended up with Starfire and Beast Boy up hours before anyone else.

Waiting. Waiting.

I came up the stairs, inputted my code into the door. Cyborg next, then Robin.

We all waited for Raven. She teleported up through the floor and inputted her code into the door.

"Duuuuude, what took you so long?"

"Never the mind Beast Boy! Let us open the presents, afforded to us by San T Claws!" Despite the other Titans insistence, Starfire fervently believed the Santa Claus existed.

And the Titan's Christmas began.


	4. A Sight for Sore Eyes

Time for a history lesson: The Teen Titans, my Teen Titans, are one of two branches. We are actually Titans West. We are based in a place called Jump City. Yeah, they named somewhere Jump City. Why? I don't have a frickin' clue. Anyway Jump City is a technologically advanced place covered in skyscrapers and crawling with bad guys. The other branch of titans, imaginatively called Titans East, is based in Steel City. Steel City is an industrial 'paradise'. Where Jump city has its skyscrapers Steel City has its factories. Steel City is also somewhat heaving with villains. At one point Cyborg led the Titans East but then he came back to the West. Here endeth the lesson.

: T : T : T : T :

Using the main screen the titans were video-conferencing. On the screen were the Titans East sat in their own Tower watching their main screen on which were us. I was introduced to each in turn. "Bumblebee," African-American wearing a yellow and black stripy outfit with lasers in the shape of Bs. "Speedy," Ginger hair, slicked down, red costume, with arrows and a bow in a holder on his back. "Aqualad" Freaky black eyes with white specks for pupils, long black hair and a blue jumpsuit. "Mas y Minos," two Mexican kids in white costumes with red lightning bolts.

I guess, although Bumblebee was leader of the Titans East, Robin was the overall leader of the Titans. He certainly acted like it. He asked the T.E. for reports on how their battles with villains had gone and the like. There was an awkward silence on the other end.

Speedy got up. "Umm… Robin…" He looked around for support and found none. "You guys are breaking up! We've been having trouble with the comm. stuff so we'll sort it out and get back to you." He pressed a button on a remote, presumably the off button and we got one last (remarkably clear considering we were 'breaking up') glimpse of the T.E. arguing about who was meant to do the reports before the screen went blank.

Robin turned on Cyborg, who was in the process of walking out. "Cyborg. You did tell them they're supposed to have a record of everything?"

Cyborg was completely still.

"Cyborg?"

Robin stood in front of Cyborg and waved his hand in front of his face. "BOO-YAAH!" Cyborg shouted randomly, right into Robin's face.

"Where's Cyborg? If I ever see him using this robot copy to shirk his duty again he'll be cleaning the tower for a month!" I could see the real Cyborg hiding behind the sofa with a controller in his hand. He put a finger to his lips and started to sneak out the other door as Robin checked the other side of the room.

Just as Cyborg had reached the exit, Robin turned around and threw a weighted bola which wrapped around Cyborgs legs and brought him crashing to the ground with an "OOF!"

Robin began the long process of telling Cyborg off.

The rest of the Titans left the room in a hurry.

: T : T : T : T :

It was my turn to go out on patrol, in other words flying over the city until somebody told me to stop. Occasionally a villain might come out of the woodwork, but not very often.

Today however, the HIVE student See-More decided to rob the mall, again. I swear those HIVE kids are _always _stealing from that place. I guess even though they're evil and have powers it doesn't stop them being teenagers.

I called Robin for backup. _"I'll send B.B. and Star. Between the three of you, you should be able to take down just him right? If you need more help me and Raven will come."_

"What about Cyborg?"

"_He is … busy … with Titans West stuff."_

" 'kay. But I bet I can bring him down before they get here."

Robin smirked. _"Sure, you can try, rookie. Robin, out."_

: T : T : T : T :

Beast Boy raced around the Tower in search of Starfire. Racing down the corridor as a cheetah he stopped with a SCREEEECH! outside Starfire's room. "Star? You in there?"

"Indeed Beast Boy, I am making preparations for the fight with the nefarious do-badder Eye-Sore."

"… I think it's See-More." He raised an eyebrow, "What type of preparations?"

"Do you remember the last time we fought with him? He had see-through vision, which distracted me during the heat of the battle… I have found an earthly remedy to prevent this! I will be there soon, please go ahead to assist friend Void."

"…Whatever…" Beast Boy ran back down the corridor and flew as an eagle through the window and towards the mall.

: T : T : T : T :

The cyclops was stealing food in the mall, also having blown open a nearby cash machine.

I swooped down grabbing his bag of loot and depositing it on the floor. "What's the point in stealing money when you never buy anything?"

The super-powered teen paused, thinking. "… umm… Shut up!" He fired a weird optic blast at me; in response I opened a black hole into its path. He began to back towards the exit

"You're not going anywhere!" I swooped in, fast. I reached him and began pummelling him, SMACK! SMACK! SM-SMACK! I held back for a second, ready to hit him with what would hopefully be a knockout punch. Unfortunately, the villain grinned, pressed a button on his helmet and a big blue ball flew out and encapsulated me.

"Shit."

"Tut tut! Titans shouldn't swear!" See-More pressed another button on his helmet. BZZT! The blue ball let out little points of electricity, shocking me.

"When I get outta here I swear I'll–" BZZZT!

Thankfully, I noticed Beast Boy arrive out of the corner of my eye. Unfortunately, so did See-More, he turned and started trying to blast the changeling out of the sky.

ZZZAAP! Beast boy dived out of the way as a bat. ZZZAAP! Flew upwards as a hawk. ZZ-ZZ-ZZAAP! Swerving this way and that as a goose. He flapped towards the villain before-

THWAP! He collided with See-More as a bear, then proceeded to swipe at the ducking student. B.B. changed into a gorilla pulling his fist back to strike the crook. See-More reached to his helmet.

A couple of seconds later and Beast Boy bounced back in a ball similar to the one I was contained in. He struggled for a second.

"… dammit."

: T : T : T : T :

Starfire flew through the air, slightly slower than usual. Whatever her plan to stop See-More looking through her costume was, it was heavy.

: T : T : T : T :

Beast Boy and I looked at each other through the balls trapping us.

Beast Boy opened his mouth, I interrupted, "… I know you wanna make a joke right now, but if you do make a comment about the size of See-More's balls, I swear to god you'll regret it."

Beast Boy was closed his mouth.

See-More went about stealing more things from around the mall, collecting his bag of loot along with a few more items of food and clothing.

Starfire flew through the double doors, eyes blazing green. She fired her optic beams at our prisons, freeing us, before turning on the HIVE student.

"Stop nefarious pervert!"

See-More turned around and reached for a button on his helmet grinning.

"Do not think that you will be able to see through my costume! I have planned for this eventuality! I give you something you cannot see through!" She brandished a huge selection of what looked like wires.

See-More pressed the switch, and his grin spread even wider across his face. "It doesn't seem to be working, chick."

Starfire looked puzzled. "But is this not the led?"

"I can see where you made you're mistake… see they're _leeds_. And I can see right through them!" He winked, or possibly blinked… hard to tell when he only has one eye.

Starfire looked down at her body, dropped her leads and with an embarrassed "EEP!" fled the mall.

While this was happening, Beast Boy had been sneaking up behind the preoccupied cyclops, and he then turned into an octopus and wrapped up the limbs and torso of the struggling HIVE student.

"Lemme go you wan-" Beast Boys tentacle wrapped around the boys mouth.

I flew in and delivered a knockout punch to the temple of the HIVE member.

: T : T : T : T :

The Omega Wing guards came to take away See-More. Wearing their full armour and helmets and carrying guns they looked pretty intimidating. That is, if you didn't know that almost all of the current villains had at one time or another, with relative ease, broken into or out of the Omega Wing.

: T : T : T : T :

When me and B.B. returned to the Tower we found Robin consoling Starfire. "Well done you three. Any idea what See-More wanted in particular?" at the sound of the HIVE villain's name Starfire whimpered.

"Nope, maybe the Hive Five just ran out of food or something."

Behind them, Cyborg was giving a lecture to the Titans East about writing reports, on the main screen. They were slumped around their meeting room. Speedy was blatantly asleep, snores emanating from him. Mas y Menos just looked confused. "And so after you've done that, you have to check through the previous paragraph to make sur-"

Bumblebee got up from her seat. _"Ok I think we got the gist of what you're saying."_

"No! We've still got loads to cover!"

"_Umm… hey… I think you're breaking up!" _she pressed a button on a remote and the screen went blank.

Cyborg paused. "…Ah well, I tried."

: T : T : T : T :

"So, can I have another phone-call?"

"_No."_

"What about my helmet?"

"_No."_

"Aww man… well, can I at least see Brother Blood? He is my headmaster!"

"…_fine… follow me."_

See-More followed the Omega wing guard down the corridor towards Brother Blood's room.

The guard opened the cell door and See-More walked in with a smirk on his face. "Hey boss…"

: T : T : T : T :

Back at the Tower, Starfire had recovered, Cyborg was forgiven and me and Beast Boy were relaxing.

That is, until…

WRIIIIII! WRIIIIII!

The Titan alarm went off and the main screen said **INCOMING TRANSMISSION.**

A face appeared onscreen, glasses and outrageously red hair. "Alright my duckies!" Mad Mod in the flesh… or possibly a hologram. He pulled back from the screen, bizarrely he was wearing an English Royal Navy's officer suit. "You Americans won't join the British Empire peacefully? Then I'll just have to take it by force!"


	5. An Officer and a Gentleman I

When Robin makes a mistake, one of our team-mates gets kidnapped or a particular villain beats us several times Robin becomes obsessed. Scary obsessed. Once he became Red X just to get a chance to take out Slade. Thankfully nothing like this has happened since, but we've had a few close calls…

: T : T : T : T :

**Previously: **_A face appeared onscreen, glasses and outrageously red hair. "Alright my duckies!" Mad Mod in the flesh… or possibly a hologram. He pulled back from the screen, bizarrely he was wearing an English Royal Navy's officer suit. "You Americans won't join the British Empire peacefully? Then I'll just have to take it by force!"_

The screen went blank.

"What was that about?"

We looked at each other. Robin began shouting orders. "Cyborg, find out what he's planning, Star, B.B. and Raven search the city for signs of anything amiss. Void, get ready for a stealth mission. You're with me."

Starfire, Beast Boy and Raven immediately flew for the windows. Cyborg moved over to the super-computer and started to type away. Bringing up different cameras around the city, we quickly discovered the insane Brit. was not publicly in the city.

"Void, when we find Mad Mod, we're going to try to sneak up on him before he tries anything to threaten the city, ok?"

"Gotcha."

: T : T : T : T :

Starfire flew over the city in search of any sign of Mad Mod's presence.

In a different part of the city a green hawk cast its eyes over building after building.

Another part of the city and Raven searched, fruitlessly like the other two Titans.

: T : T : T : T :

Through a partially opened window a bulky rifle aimed at a flying Titan above. Robotic eyes targeted, taking a few seconds to calibrate for movement and wind speed. Robotic joints tightened the grip onto the trigger, ready to fire. … waiting for conformation …

: T : T : T : T :

Cyborg typed away at his keyboard, searching amongst the airwaves for any trace of Mad Mod. Meanwhile Robin was briefing me on Mad Mod.

"Watch out for hypno-screens, they are one of Mad Mod's greatest weapons, they're pretty much what they sound like. Screens and they hypnotize you. Best way to get past them is simply to blow them up. His robotic henchmen are pretty tough too although your suit should make short work of them."

Cyborg frowned for a second, as three simultaneous messages were sent to separate parts in the city. Tapping furiously he tried to trace the transmission, but didn't manage to get anywhere.

Trying a different tactic he followed where the messages were headed. He frowned again and checked where our three Titan scouts were.

: T : T : T : T :

BANG! Receiving the conformation message, all three robotic soldiers fired. At the last second Beast Boy morphed into a humming bird and dived, having seen something on the floor. A net flew high over his head.

Ignoring the cat he had seen stuck in a tree Beast Boy morphed into a pterodactyl and flew at the assailant. CH-TUNG! The robot had reloaded and took aim once again.

SMASH! Beast Boy crashed through the window right into the mechanical soldier. Morphing into a bear he took a swipe at the robot, making a hole in it's London guard uniform. He morphed into a tiger reared above the robot… CRUNCH!

The robot's head came apart in the green feline's jaws.

Beast Boy leapt up, as his green self and radioed back to the Tower.

: T : T : T : T :

"_It's Mad Mod alright, got attacked by one of his soldiers just now," _his voice took on a arrogant tone, _"Naturally, I dodged it's first attack and took it apart in seconds, no need to worry about me . Heh heh! I guess I'll see what I can find here to bring back to the base, I bet we'll be able to find everything about him, and it'll all be down to me. Heh… I bet all the chicks will be wanting my autograph or my paw-print. Hmmm… I wonder which will be the best? I mean obviously a lion is pretty impressive, but it might not fit on the paper, I guess I should maybe just have a different one depending on the size of paper, although… hey dudes are you even listening? Dudes? DUDES?"_

None of us were listening. We were all watching the main screen, which up until now had been showing a map of the city with Starfire, Raven and B.B. being represented by flashing dots.

Two of the dots had disappeared.

This meant that the communicators, which all Titans have with them at all times, were either off or destroyed.

Robin reacted fast, "Void, go to where Raven last was, I'll find Star. Cy, get Beast Boy to bring back the remains of the robot." He said this as he ran towards the exit, and his R-cycle.

I flew as fast as I could out of the window.

Beast Boy had continued on, oblivious. _"-on the rest of 'em is what I say, isn't that right guys? … Guys?"_

: T : T : T : T :

Robin roared down the streets towards where Starfire had last been. He kept checking a screen in front of him, which displayed a map. He checked the speedometer and with a snarl went even faster.

: T : T : T : T :

I flew above the city, pushing my suit to its limits. I checked my communicator, which was currently displaying a map. Raven was supposed to be around here somewhere. I was above the warehouse district. Pretty typical place for super-villain base of operations.

I went directly down, towards where Raven was last positioned. There were definitely signs of a struggle, a scratch along the side of one of the warehouses, a sign of Raven having used her telekinesis.

On closer inspection there was a small plate of red metal. I picked it up and placed it in a bag. It probably wouldn't help that much but we might be able to tell if it was definitely Mod's robots that had attacked her.

: T : T : T : T :

When I returned to the Tower I found Cyborg and Beast Boy both checking over the robot. The Boy Wonder was nowhere to be found. On the main screen, the map was still there, with Robin's location flashing away, still near to where Star had been taken.

Outside it began to pelt the Tower with rain.

The screen displayed **INCOMING TRANSMISSION.**

"Looks like I have to teach you kiddies a little lesson in respect!" Mad Mod, still in his British Navy uniform. "You shouldn't be tryin' to find me, soon enough I'll be comin' to you! Oh, and if you do try and find me, you're little mates 'ere won't last long!" The camera panned over to Raven and Starfire, who were tied up, and apparently tranquilised. "Goodbye!" the screen went back to the map.

Beast Boy turned to Cyborg for orders. The space next to him was empty as Cyborg had already moved over to the supercomputer and started to find where Mad Mod was hiding.

: T : T : T : T :

Robin finally gave up looking for his missing friend and returned to the Tower. Soaked through he still managed to help Cyborg trace Mad Mod's transmission.

After a few minutes work he decided Cyborg would do just as good a job by himself. Still wet from being outside before he went back to search the streets. "B.B., Void, wait here with Cy, so we can strike quickly if either of us finds anything." And with a swish of his cape he was gone.

After perhaps 10 minutes, Cyborg came up with a rough location for the transmission. A high amount of electricity also implied Mad Mod's presence there. After radioing Robin we set off.

: T : T : T : T :

Raven's eyes opened slowly, to the horrible visage of Mad Mod. Yellow, wonky teeth grinned at her. She looked around her to see herself in a wooden chair, similar to the ones they had been in last time Mad Mod had captured them.

"Good Morning chum!" Mad Mod spun his walking stick, the ruby in it's end reflecting the light in red flickering strobes. "Look who's in the hot seat once again! Don't you damsel's in distress learn? You can't beat old Moddy!"

Raven's eyes turned grey. "If memory serves 'Moddy' we beat you both times we fought you. And I am _not _a damsel in distress!" With this, black telekinesis enveloped the chair tearing it to pieces.

"…Shit."

Raven rose up into the air. A robot guard marched over, but Raven merely sent a lash of telekinesis at the automaton's neck and its head crashed to the ground.

"Ah well!" Mad Mod stopped twirling his stick and pressed a button on its ruby end. The hologram of him disappeared.

Raven took stock of her surroundings. She was in a grey room with only one exit, the walls were blank and there was little else in the room, practically nothing to use as a weapon. As she had no idea where she was, she couldn't use her powers to transport herself elsewhere.

The doors burst open and a dozen or so of Mad Mod's soldiers tried to walk in to the room. Raven used her powers to shut the doors with a flick of her hand. She then reinforced them with a shield of obsidian.

She looked around the room, Starfire was snoozing next to her, and there were a few windows high on the room's walls. Choosing these as her exit she made a quick plan.

She turned to Starfire, waved her arms, breaking the bonds holding the alien girl. Kneeling down in front of the girl Raven tried to wake her. However, Starfire merely leant forward and enfolded Raven with a hug, mumbling. "…yes, I would enjoy a hug Robin…"

Raven tried to shake her off but to no avail. "Star? Time to wake up… We have to leave here now." And then added, "And I'm not Robin."

The doors at the end of the room broke under sustained fire from the robot soldiers, now only Raven's magic was holding them back. "Starfire! Wake up and get off me!"

Starfire's eyes opened wearily, and then suddenly widened as she realised that she was hugging Raven. "Apologies friend Raven! I was dreaming about Ro- Not that it matters… where are we?" Spying the robots at the end of the room she charged up two starbolts, her eyes growing green.

Raven started to frown as the barrage against her barrier reached a crescendo. "Star, we have to get out of here now!" As they began to fly towards the windows the robots broke through the magical barrier.

CR-CR-CRACK!

Twelve shots were fired towards them. Raven telekinetically dragged a table in front of them, blocking the shots. More androids marched into the room, bringing their long guns from their shoulders and took aim.

"We must fight our way out!"

"There are too many Star."

Starfire powered up her starbolts, her eyes glowing green. "You depart for the windows, I will hold them back." The table began to crumble under the bombardment from the robots.

"We'll fight th-" Above them one of the windows smashed inwards, as a roaring red bike broke through it.

Snarling, the Boy Wonder leapt off his bike letting fly several bird-a-rangs. BOOM! Robin earned his title as several of the robots exploded as the projectiles hit weak points in their armour.

"Robin!" Following their leader's example Raven and Starfire leapt up to join the counter-attack.

Starfire flung green orbs, managing to destroy a mechanical warrior as well as helping to confuse their sensors.

Raven split her time between blocking shots and lashing out with tendrils of darkness.

Robin fought like a monster, bringing down robot after robot with projectiles.

However, the numbers of soldiers were too great and eventually the three Titans were forced into a corner, dodging when possible and blocking when it wasn't.

Eventually the fusillade of shots stopped, and Mad Mod's minions took up a firing line.

Robin, Starfire and Raven took up defensive positions ready to make a last stand.

Robin whipped out his bo-staff, "On my signal… Ti-"

"Titans! Go!" PHHWIIIIISH! A sonic blast demolished a few of the mechanical soldiers as they were all thrown up into the air. The rest of the Titans had arrived.

I opened a black hole under some of the robots and Beast Boy flew in and threw a couple more into the void.

As the remaining robots climbed unsteadily to their feet, the Titans ran in to finish them off. Starfire swooped in with a green encased fist too demolish their skulls.

Robin tripped over two and then with two deft movements of his bo-staff incapacitated them.

B.B. morphed into a gorilla, beat his chest, roaring and smashed two heads together.

I opened a hole behind a couple of the robots and flying kicked them so they stumbled backwards into it.

Raven used telekinesis to mash several of the machines into a puree of metal and plastic.

Finally, with a "BOO-YAH!" Cyborg stomped on the head of the android he had just felled.

Panting, we came together. Starfire immediately swooped over and enveloped Robin in a rib-crushing hug. When he had caught his breath he addressed us. "Good work, Titans. Now we just have to find where Mad Mod is really hiding."

Exhausted and yet triumphant me and the Titans made our way back to the Tower. As it was still raining, I decided to take the T-car, as did Raven and Beast Boy. Starfire, unwilling to let go of Robin clung to him on his R-Cycle.

: T : T : T : T :

When we returned to the Tower, Cyborg immediately went back to his computer unit, to continue his search for Mad Mod. Robin went to the map to think about where Mod might be hiding.

Suddenly, Cyborg stood up. "I know what Mod will be going after! The local signal booster for the city would be an easy way to transmit his hypno signal to all TV screens in the area." A location on the map was circled, presumably the signal booster. "But I've also found two locations for where Mad Mod himself might be hiding. One will probably be a decoy, like where Rae and Star were being held."

Robin considered this for a couple of seconds, closing his eyes he obviously came to a decision he didn't want to make. "We'll have to split into three teams. So we can tackle Mad Mod on all fronts." He paused, considering the best way to put the Titans into teams. "Cyborg and Star, you look after the signal booster. Rae and B.B. go after one of the possible Mod locations. Me and the newbie will go after the other."

"…Void…" I muttered.

"What was that noobie?" Beast Boy smirked, enjoying his role as a veteran.

"Forget it."

"Titans GO!" Robin shouted, and we all went for the separate targets.

: T : T : T : T :

I soared through the streets with Robin on his R-cycle below me. Above the roar of his engine Robin prepped me on what the mission should entail.

"… _then we sneak in, take out Mod, hopefully without too much hassle. Mod is a tough one to beat, although once you find something he hasn't taken into account then it's generally quite simple to take him down."_

And we roared onwards towards the Bay.

: T : T : T : T :

The T-car came to a skidding stop next to a tall metal tower, at random intervals a satellite dish or aerial would stick out into the night. The tower looked similar to a smaller version of the Eiffel tower, one difference being that the only way up was a ladder, or by climbing rung to rung.

Cyborg and Starfire climbed out of the T-car. Cyborg looked at the ladder and then at the dish at the top of the tower. He started to walk towards the tower, but Starfire grabbed him under his arms and flew upwards.

: T : T : T : T :

"…why did I get paired with you?" Beast Boy had cracked another joke and was already getting on Raven's nerves.

"Because Robin didn't want Starfire to be going into the base of Mad Mod, so she was sent to the signal booster, where Robin thinks if we attack the base nobody should go, Cyborg has to go to the signal booster in case he needs to hack it or something, the noobie needs looking after by Robin, aaaaand that leaves me and you dude!" Said Beast Boy, all in one breath.

Raven sped up, the ground below her beginning to blur past. In response Beast Boy increased his wings flaps. "I didn't actually need you to answer me…"

: T : T : T : T :

Robin skidded to a stop, above him, I stopped mid-flight. We were on a pier, looking out towards the bay. "Mad Mod is supposed to be …" Robin studied his communicator, where a small dot blinked steadily away. He pointed out to sea. "That way." He took a small cylinder out of his belt. He pressed a button on the end VRRMMM! There was a light roar beneath us.

"Say hello to the R-Speeder!"

: T : T : T : T :

Mad Mod sat on a throne, surrounded by technological instruments, a hum filled the room from the many computers. Wires seemed to be growing there in his lair like weeds. He turned to a figure at one of the machines and said, "Within a few days, the British Empire will be great once more! Order the attack!"

_**To Be Continued… **_


	6. An Officer and a Gentleman II final

**Previously: **_A face appeared onscreen, glasses and outrageously red hair. "Alright my duckies!" Mad Mod in the flesh… or possibly a hologram. He pulled back from the screen, bizarrely he was wearing an English Royal Navy's officer suit. "You Americans won't join the British Empire peacefully? Then I'll just have to take it by force!"_

_Cyborg stood before the Main Room's screen, "The local signal booster for the city would be an easy way to transmit his hypno signal to all TV screens in the area." A location on the map was circled, presumably the signal booster. "But I've also found two locations for where Mad Mod himself might be hiding." The Titans rode out from the Tower in three different directions._

_Mad Mod sat in his technological cave, "Within a few days, the British Empire will be great once more! Order the attack!"_

: T : T : T : T :

Starfire and Cyborg flew to the top of the transmitter tower. The rain poured from the sky, soaking the Titans and the tower itself.

Setting Cyborg down Starfire landed next to him. Cyborg pointed to a innocuous looking dish, "That's the thing we gotta look after, if everything gets too much for us we'll take it out, ok?"

"Why do we not just destroy it now? Then we could join the other teams."

"Destroying it will bring down most of the communications along with all of the satellite television for the area, and we don't want to lose TV do we?"

Starfire smiled, her hands clasped together. "I will do my best, friend Cyborg!"

"I know you will Star."

: T : T : T : T :

Raven and Beast Boy touched down a block away from their target, an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city. Like most of the area the factory was run down, with a few parts of the outer wall missing and several windows smashed. Other than the two Titans and the rain pelting down on them, the street was deserted

Silently, Raven moved forwards. The changeling beside her morphed into a cat, his heightened sense ready to pick up on trouble.

: T : T : T : T :

A buoy in the Bay, rain pelting down onto the sea.

A dull roar and a wave of seawater crashed over the bobbing marker. Seconds before a red speedboat had almost flown past.

I held onto the passenger seat as the Boy Wonder pushed the R-Speeder to its limits. Suddenly, a blip appeared on the outer part of the radar. Robin slowed the speedboat to check it and sped off in the direction of the newly found object.

I gripped the Jesus bar tightly.

"Scared, rookie?" Robin smirked.

"H-Hardly." I let go of the Jesus bar and returned my hands to my lap.

The blip was getting closer, so Robin slowed down to avoid detection. "This could be it, so be ready."

I cracked my knuckles, "Ready and able."

"Good."

The blip was almost on top of us now. Robin slowed the speeder to an almost stop and gradually, gradually brought us right up to it.

I looked out of the window, to see the front of a huge ship rise out of the darkness. On it's side was written in great, fading letters 'Britannia'.

Without a word Robin stopped the boats engine. Pressing a button on the side the roof slid open. I flew directly up the bow of the ship, past the deck, my suit camouflaging me against the night.

Seconds later a grappling hook fired from the gloom below and wrapped itself around the handrail of the ship. Robin rose out of the darkness, holding onto the handle of his grappling hook.

He pulled himself up onto the deck and I landed next to him. He got out a bird-a-rang and crept towards the doors to the interior of the ship. We crept inside the doors and out of the damned rain.

Inside, the light was barely stronger than outside, the lights only emitted the faintest glow possible without actually being off. After only a minute or so of exploration we almost walked into a man walking around the ship, obviously acting as a guard.

THUD!

Robin took the man out with a well placed chop. The man sank to the floor and we were able to study him for the first time. He was wearing shirt and tie, with a black jacket on. Presumably typical navy-wear, although I'm no expert.

Robin looked at the unconscious guy on the floor and then at me. I raised an eyebrow underneath my mask.

"You know what would be easier? If we could walk round without being interrupted by anyone."

I frowned.

"Okay, you're gonna have to wear his clothes. You look about the right size."

"Why can't you do it?"

"Not the right size."

"I suppose, you are pretty short."

Robin frowned at me. "Just take off the cowl."

"What about my secret identity?"

He raised an eyebrow.

: T : T : T : T :

Cyborg sat on the metal girder, rain pelting down, making little tinkling noises on the steel. Above him, keeping an eye out was Starfire, visible only because of the green glow of her starbolts, ready to fire at any intruder.

Suddenly she fired off her round of starbolts and flew down to Cyborg. "There is a small force of the Mad Mod's androids, coming from the East."

Cyborg leapt to his feet, running carefully along the slippery metal. Skidding to a stop he looked out from the radio tower. Bright red mechanical soldiers were marching up the street towards them. Behind them a tank rumbled along.

"Star, keep moving, don't let them get a lock on you."

"Affirmative!"

Starfire flew up to the skies, charging starbolts as she went. As the robot's heads followed Star's direction, Cyborg took aim with his sonic cannon. PWOOOOOOSH! The cannon fired a long stream of sonic energy down at the automatons.

One was utterly destroyed by the blast, and a few more were thrown into the air.

FLASH! FLASH!

Two orbs of green light flew down, destroying another android.

Cyborg shouted up, "Star! Keep them busy from up there! If any make it to here, take 'em out in any way possible!" Starfire nodded, flinging more Starbolts as Cyborg moved back along the metal girder.

He turned swiftly, and began to run at full pelt along the metal. As he leapt off the radio tower he charged up his sonic cannon.

He fell.

CRASH!

Cyborg landed on one knee, his sonic cannon planted downwards through the chest of one robot and into the chest of a second. There was a second of silence.

BOOOM!

A wave of sonic energy knocked a dozen of the robots off their feet.

Cyborg leapt to his feet, firing his cannon wildly and punching robots away from him.

An automaton took aim behind him and FLASH! A starbolt melted it's head. Several others were brought down by Starfire who flew over head, dodging bullet shots from the androids below.

: T : T : T : T :

Pad. Pad. Pad.

A drenched green cat crept up to the abandoned factory. As it reached the door, it shook itself, morphing into a green elf. He waved towards the shadows by the broken gate. Raven floated over, her feet not touching the ground and a shield of darkness protecting her from the rain.

Raven looked upwards, towards a broken window. Beast Boy nodded, morphed into a monkey and scaled the wall in seconds. He peered through the smashed window, morphed into a rat and slunk in.

Seconds later he reappeared, mouthing to Raven "Come on!" Raven floated upwards towards the green-skinned elf.

They found themselves in a room, now out of the downpour, everywhere there were machines of some sort. But they were all silent, dead.

WHURR! CLUNG!

The machines came to life, swinging arms and pistons jerking in to action. Conveyor belts whirred into suddenly lit furnaces. Metal poured into casts. The factory was alive.

The two Titans crept along the machines, to the end. Here they found newly made robotic soldiers. Unpainted, they came to life and tended to the machines that built them.

"Beast Boy, we have to shut down the factory before we can take out any of the soldiers. If we don't then we'll end up fighting more and more of those damned things."

"Gotcha. B.B. is on the job!" He morphed into a humming bird and flew up to a gantry above the machines. He landed as an elf, looking for a way to destroy the machines below. "One broked factory coming up…" He spied a heavy looking chain. Morphing into a gorilla he waddled over to pick it up.

: T : T : T : T :

I frowned, wearing my newly acquired navy uniform. "Ok, now take off the cowl." Grudgingly, I did so. My black hair fell out, down close to my green eyes. A mess. I tucked my cowl into the back of my costume. The Boy Wonder smirked and winked, "Hello sailor."

"Shut up."

"Heh heh. Don't worry, while you're walking round, I'll be around. So you'll be safe."

"I'm not afraid."

"Of course not…"

I frowned. "Well, how're you gonna sneak about in that?" I asked pointing at his costume.

He covered his red and green costume with his black cape and slinked off to hide in the shadows. I sighed and began walking down the corridor. "Do we even know where we're going?"

There was only silence.

I decided to head for the bridge. Logically that would be high up, so when I spied some stairs I started to climb upwards.

: T : T : T : T :

Cyborg punched an android, throwing it backwards into two others. Changing his fist into a sonic cannon, he blasted the three apart. He turned around. A robot fired its rifle at him, which he managed to block with his wrist, flinging the gun upwards.

His eyes widened as he saw a green comet flying towards him. He ducked and Starfire flew over him and crashed into the soldier directly behind him. As she flew back upwards she unleashed four more starbolts destroying her targets.

"RRAAARRGH!" Cybrog punched his way through another automaton.

CCRRCCH! From around the corner, one of Mad Mod's tanks rumbled its way toward the mechanical teen. It's cannon turned to fire on him.

Starfire threw starbolts down, which impacted on the armour of the tank, but failed to cause any damage. The turret turned and the gun raised up towards the Tamaranian. Starfire snarled, closing her eyes, before unleashing green optic blasts.

The tank fired a shell. Starfire dived, dodging beneath the projectile. Like a green comet she flew down SMASH! crashing into the side of the tank.

A small dent was formed in the armour.

PHWOOSH!

Cyborg fired a sonic blast at the front of the tank. But while it rocked back on its tracks a bit, no damage was actually done. The turret turned to him and fired a shell.

BOOM!

The impact and subsequent explosion sent Cyborg flying backwards, like a ragdoll, and through the wall of a nearby building.

: T : T : T : T :

The green gorilla picked up the chain. He then waddled over to the side of the gantry, above some clanking gears. He held the chain over the barrier.

BLAM!

A net covered the hulking beast, trapping him against the floor. At the end of the gantry, an unpainted mechanical soldier stood, it's rifle still raised and smoking from it's shot.

The gorilla morphed into an elf. "As if this could hold me for a second." Said Beast Boy as he morphed into a rat and slipped between the wires that held him.

He scurried towards the reloading robot, which was changing its ammo to lethal rounds. Just as it had finished with its gun, Beast Boy morphed into a raptor, tearing apart the android's head from it's shoulders.

Spitting out bits of metal from his mouth, he morphed back into his normal green self. He ran over to the chain once more, but as he was getting ready to morph into something big enough to pick up the chain, he saw Raven in trouble.

She was surrounded by Mad Mod's creations, all trying to raise guns. The guns were encased with black telekinesis, but the robots were managing to gradually lift there weapons up to fire at the girl.

Beast Boy made a split decision choice. He morphed into a gorilla, picked up the massive chain and tossed it into three of the soldiers, even as the telekinesis appeared to shatter around the guns. The changeling leapt off the gantry, morphing into a raptor on his way down.

CRASH!

He landed on one soldier, mashing it's mechanical insides into the ground. He turned to another baring his teeth.

Raven use her magic to tear apart three of the robots with metal shards from their deceased companions.

Beast Boy morphed into a huge ape, picking up the chain he had thrown before. He swung it above his head.

CR-CRASH!

He smashed another three of the robots with the gigantic chain.

Raven pointed her hands at the final three soldiers, even as they pulled the triggers on their guns.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

The deadly rounds fired. One into each of the robots.

They crumbled under their own shots.

The two Teen Titans stood in the remains of over a dozen of Mod's creations.

But as soon as Beast Boy cheered, more robots activated as they walked from their 'birthing' chamber.

Raven turned to Beast Boy. "You should have destroyed the factory first."

As she raised herself into the air, her eyes glowing white Beast Boy muttered, "No problem for saving you, Rae. Geez, you should be hero worshipping me, but nooo."

Raven smirked, tendrils of dark magic flying from her fingertips at the newly made automatons.

: T : T : T : T :

I walked down a corridor in the ship, completely lost and feeling like a fool.

Finally, I found a door that lead away from the corridor I felt like I had been stuck in for hours.

I found myself in a room, filled with men and women in British navy uniforms. They all looked up and stared at me. One piped up eventually.

"Alright, guv'nor?" Even for a guy from England, that didn't sound real.

I said the first thing I could think of that I knew how to say with a cockney accent.

"Need a chim-er-nee sweep?"

Bizarrely, this was accepted by the people in the room, as they all returned to what they were doing. Which consisted of standing around staring at various walls.

I raised an eyebrow.

: T : T : T : T :

Cyborg climbed back through the wall. CL-CLACK He transformed his right fist into a sonic cannon. "Star?" A green bolt of energy obliterated one of the mechanical soldiers. "We have to bring down the tank!"

"Affirmative!"

The tank took aim at Cyborg once more. Starfire rocketed in, gripping the tanks cannon-barrel, pulling upwards. The shell fired, missing Cyborg by a few inches.

The robot warriors turned to defend their strongest weapon, one jumped up and landed next to Starfire. PWOOOSH! Cyborg blasted a hole through it's chest.

Another leapt onto the tank, another sonic blast from Cyborg.

The robot force split in two, one half stopping Starfire destroying the tank, the other half stopping Cyborg protecting Starfire.

CLAK-CLAK!

Cyborg transformed his other arm into another sonic cannon. "Best to cover your ears, punks."

PH-PHWOOOSH!

Two streams of sonic energy fired into the mass of robots. The ones that were hit in the chest and head, went straight down, those that got a limb caught stumbled a few more steps before crumbling.

: T : T : T : T :

I waited.

I waited.

Waited for something to happen. "So… some weather we're having, eh?"

They all turned to me.

"It's orl-ways loike this in Jolly ole England!"

"Right…"

: T : T : T : T :

"RRAAAUUGGHH!" Cyborg ran in changing his weapons back into fists. He plunged his arm through a chest of one, elbowed another in the head, kicked one in the knees and then crushed it's head with his hand.

He upper-cutted a robot, sending it sprawling back into one of it's companions, destroying them both. He jumped high into the air, transforming his left arm into his sonic cannon once more.

BOOM!

A stream of sonic energy took out one more. He landed with his one arm smashing into the face of a robot. He turned on the last group of half a dozen automatons and as they ran towards him, he transformed his right arm into a sonic cannon too. CL-CLACK!

PHWOOOOSH!

In a cleansing sonic bathing, he destroyed the remainder of the force attacking him.

Starfire, however was struggling, having to face the majority of the robots she chose to abandon trying to destroy the tank for now, and take to the sky. But as she had to dodge so many bullets, she only had a few opportunities to remove any of the robots.

Seeing Cyborg free she flew over to him. They took cover behind some rubble and tried to quickly formulate a plan.

Beast Boy stood in the form of a gorilla in front of a hovering Raven. As he punched, tore and threw the silver robotic guards, Raven created shields where needed and threw parts of destroyed robots into the mass.

: T : T : T : T :

"Rae…" morph - SMACK!- morph "You said we gotta stop the factory before engaging robots?" morph - CRUNCH! – morph -"Go for it…" morph - CRASH! - morph - "I've got your back!"

SM-SMACK! As an elephant he impaled two separate robots, destroying them both.

Raven nodded, and brought her knees up to her chest, and began to chant. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos… Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"

A robot stood on a gantry above her, took aim. Beast Boy flew up as a humming bird and collided with it as a hippo, smashing it through the gantry crushing it to the floor. He then ran back as a cheetah, in front of Raven.

He morphed into a tiger, diving into combat with the nearest robots.

Raven was still meditating. Black telekinesis enfolded the robot-making machine.

SKRRIIIIII!

Gears scraped against stationery gears, pistons stopped pumping and the conveyor belt ground to a halt. There was a moment when nothing moved and then…

SCRAAAAPE!

**BOOOOOM!**

Bits of shrapnel flew out, spiking through robots, shattering windows and bringing down the walls.

As the dust cleared a black half sphere appeared, half-covered in rubble.

A second past before it threw the rubble off and dissipated.

A cowering Beast Boy looked around. "Duuude… did you do that?"

And as the rain continued to pour, for the second time that day, Raven smirked.

: T : T : T : T :

"So guys… which way is the bridge?" They looked at me suspiciously. "umm… admiral Mod wants to see me? I, uh," Inspiration struck, "its my first day!"

They nodded and pointed towards a door. I grinned and made my way towards the bridge. As I went through the door, I heard sarcastically whispered in my ear, "Nice work, rookie."

More stairs.

Great.

I looked around, and flew upwards.

"Heh heh!"

I reached the top of the stairs and found myself staring into the barrel of a gun.

"Ah, crap."

: T : T : T : T :

Starfire flew upwards away from the battle, Cyborgs arms in her hands. Flying so that they were directly above the tank. "After I take out the tank, you have to destroy the robots as quickly as possible, and then check on the dish okay?"

Starfire nodded.

She dropped Cyborg.

THWOOOOOSH! Ten stories up, Cyborg tumbled towards the ground. He transformed his right arm into a sonic cannon. With his left hand he pressed a few buttons on the cannon, a few flaps opened and it lengthened.

THWOOSH! A humm filled the air as he began to charge up the blast. His arm began to shine blue brightly and the gun started to vibrate.

THWOOSH! He struggled to keep the cannon on target. As he reached five stories up, he unleashed his fully powered sonic cannon.

**SHWOOOOOOM!**

A huge beam of sonic energy fired directly down, right into the centre of Mad Mod's forces and into the tank. The sonic blast held Cyborg in the air for a second, Robots being tossed upwards beneath him.

"BOO-YAAH!" Cyborg shouted, before the drain on his power caught up with him and the blue lighting of his circuitry turned black. And he fell into the midst of the ravaged robots and into the middle of a crater.

Thunk.

Starfire gasped and flew down. She landed on her knees next to him and cradled his head. "Cyborg?"

On reserve power only, he only managed a whisper. _"Check the dish…"_

Starfire nodded and flew up the radio tower.

One robot was soldering something to the dish. SMASH! She caved his head in, with a glowing green hand. She turned to the circuitry, half-attached to the dish. They began to melt as she unleashed an optic beam.

: T : T : T : T :

I pulled my cowl back over my head, falling backwards as I did so. A shot rang out above me, and a bullet embedded itself in the wall.

-My suit can make black holes, but moving them at anything other than a slow speed is a problem. However, I can 'attach' them to my wrists and the edges of the black holes can cut through most things. This gives me a sort of shield as well as an offensive weapon. By doing this my suit is able to move them at a normal speed. –

Attaching black holes to my wrists I flew back up. PHIIIISSHH! And swiped my hand through the robot's head. The body of the robot crumpled to the floor, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Four more robots stood aiming at me. Just as they were about to attack, one of them starting sparking and was suddenly dragged into the darkness of the stairwell. Robin, presumably. The remaining robots attentions' were no longer on me, they had turned to see their companion dragged off.

I smiled, and ran forward and span in mid-air. My wrist voids slashed several times into the armour of my opponents, and they fell to the ground, broken.

I looked around for Robin, saw he wasn't appearing out of the darkness, and flew down a corridor, hopefully, towards the bridge.

: T : T : T : T :

Robin had tried to sneak through the door, but the zombified sailors had seen him. He turned, taking up a crouching martial arts position.

A sailor ran at him, fist raised. Robin ducked under the fist and kicked blindly backwards, sending the sailor flying into a metal wall. CLUNG!

"Next."

Three more sailors ran at him. Robin grinned.

Using the middle sailor as a stand, he leap-frogged, kicking the other two in the head, knocking them out. The final one of the trio turned and got a kick to the face, sending him sprawling backwards into a wall.

Robin turned to a wall of sailors ready to attack him. He took up another pose. "Let's make this quick…"

: T : T : T : T :

Starfire held her communicator tightly, listening to Beast Boy talking.

"_Our coordinates turned out to be a robot factory, but no sign of Mad Mod. I brought down the place though, so there shouldn't be too many more of the things."_

"_Beast Boy, **I **brought down the place…"_

"_Well sure, technically, but I totally protected your butt while you were doing it!"_

"_Is that what you call it?"_

"_Hmph!"_

"Have you heard anything of Robin and Void?"

"_Zilch."_

"Then I will return Cyborg to the Tower and then make my way to the coordinates given to Robin."

"_Coolio, Star, we'll meet you there."_

"Affirmative."

"_Over and out."_

: T : T : T : T :

Robin kicked the last sailor in the temple, bringing him down. Abandoning all caution he ran down through the corridor leading to the bridge. Since the sailors had spotted him, the chances were that Mad Mod knew they were there. This meant the only chance for victory would be to get to the control room as soon as possible, while the element of surprise might still be there.

: T : T : T : T :

With the black holes still 'attached' to my wrists I slashed an X through a metal door. I pushed against it with my foot, toppling it.

I entered into a haven of wires and electronic items. 10 robotic soldiers turned to look at me, aiming their guns. Most of the wires, on the ground and ceiling, were leading to a throne in the middle of the room. Surrounded by screens, showing various views of around town and the frigate, a destroyed factory and a radio tower being two.

"Alright chum?" An English accent, it could only be Mad Mod. "You did well to get this far, but I'm gonna have to teach you some respect, you miserable scrot!"

He stood from his throne and turned to face me. He held his stick with a ruby in one end of it in his hand. He pressed the all purpose ruby button.

As he span the stick he seemed to swell up. His body became a sphere with the colours of the British flag on it.

"Lets go, you American moron!"

I flew at him, one arm raised, black hole still ready to slice. But just as I was about to get to him a net collided with me dragging me to the floor. I cut through the thick wire and stood. Three more nets fired at me, but I expanded the holes 'attached' to my arms and swallowed them up.

From nowhere Mod jumped at me, swinging his cane, which connected with my skull. CRACK!

I landed hard on the floor, and skidded a metre or so.

He leapt at me again. SWIPE! Swung his cane but I ducked out of the way.

PHIIIISH! I sliced at his spherical body with my wrist 'blades', but the scratch in his body armour just disappeared moments later.

PH-PH-PHIIIISH!

I swung three more times, this time aiming for his cane, but the jolly old Englander somehow managed to evade, with an amazing set of gymnastics.

As he was out of the way, an opening for his android henchman was available. I had to create a void in front of me to swallow their bullets.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

A shadow flew through the door. Out of its outstretched arms were flung bird-a-rangs, into six of the ten robots. FL-FL-FL-THUNG!

**B-B-BOOM!**

With five of the robots down, thanks to Robin, I removed my shield. I flew towards the group of four PH-PHIIIISH! I sliced two in half, one falling in two pieces down the middle, the other was sliced at the waist.

Mad Mod was livid and from out of nowhere he produced a missile launcher. He held his stick loosely as he took aim at the Boy Wonder. PFTOOOOM!

WOOOSH! PHIIIISH!

I flew over to the rocket, sliced it in half, which caused it to explode.

Mad Mod peered through the smoke, a great grin on his face. But out of the smog a grappling hook was fired FW-FW-FW! Latched around Mad Mod's walking stick CLANG! And pulled it back into the smoke.

"Shit!"

The smoke cleared and Robin held the stick in two hands before breaking it in half. CRACK!

As his body armour deflated, robots fell to the floor and the screens blinked out one by one Mad Mod ran to a control panel, pressing a button.

"I knew I should have come up with a better way of controlling things, Thankfully, I have one last thing that doesn't rely on my walking stick!"

A wall began to divide the room in two. Robin and I ran towards the division, but only managed to bang or hands against it. After a couple of seconds it opened again.

Mad Mod stormed in, but this time he was wearing an exo-skeleton of armour, bristling with weapons.

"I'll take on America by myself!"

PFTOOOM!

He fired a laser blast at us, before thrusters fired from his back and ankles, he flew upwards, an opening which we hadn't noticed before took him outside.

"Void! Take me out there and try and contact the others. I'll try and slow him down before he gets to the city. Let's go!"

I gripped him under his arms and flew out the same hole Mod did.

As we reached the cold night air, where it had stopped raining, we could see Mod flying towards the city. I dropped Robin, who got a control out of his utility belt, pushing a button. Far below, at sea level the R-Speeder came to life.

Robin performed a swan-dive off the edge of the ship and landed in the speeder below. With a whurr of the engine it sped off in Mad Mod's direction, the roof already closing Robin in against the elements.

I got out my communicator and started to contact the other Titans. "H-Hello? This is Void. Can anyone read me?"

"_Sure can nooby." _Beast Boy _"What took you so long? We're almost at you now!"_

"We found Mad Mod, but he escaped in a weird exo-skeleton, robotic suit thing! Robin's chasing him now, but he might need some help."

"_I think I see… Ah crap. FFFFT!" _Beast Boy broke up. It seemed like Mad Mod had some sort of radio blocker.

I decided that the Titans would probably want me to go and help them, so I set off in the direction of the city.

: T : T : T : T :

By the time I arrived the other Titans had pretty much fought Mod to a standstill. It was only a matter of time before they brought him down. He had already lost the thruster on his back, and the multiple weapons attached to his suit were melted and smoking.

Even as I got close enough to make a difference I saw Starfire launch Beast Boy as a armadillo at Mod. Raven was throwing bits of the mad Englishman's own suit at him, while Robin had a cord wrapped around his ankle.

Beast Boy morphed into a pterodactyl, and gripped Mad Mod's shoulders, Robin pulled down on the cord. Raven used black telekinesis to undo latches that kept Mod attached to his suit.

And then finally the suit fell free of the Brit. Starfire launched a starbolt at the suit, incinerating it.

It was at this time when I realized again how well the Titans worked as a team, and I hoped that one day I would be able to be as good as them. Luckily, I knew that they would be there every step of the way… one way or another…


	7. A Walk in the Park

Cyborg is like the groups cheer, without him we become more… I suppose the word is miserable. But as soon as he returns, Beast Boy becomes his usual hyper-happy self, even Robin lightens up some when Cyborg comes back to us. If only for a little while. In the battles soon after this the team has a boundless confidence of being able to do anything. In the end I think each member brings something to the team, Cyborg brings confidence, Robin: leadership, Raven: maturity, Starfire: joy and Beast Boy brings a youthfulness to the group. Me? I wonder if I bring anything, or ever will…

: T : T : T : T :

Cyborg's red eye lit up, his circuitry changed from grey to a healthy blue. "Boo-Yah! Cyborg is fully charged and ready to whoop some butt!" He jumped to his feet and detached the cable that connected him to his recharge unit. "So, we got Mad Mod, right?"

The Titans stood smiling around him. Beast Boy jumped in front of him. "Sure did Cy! And it was me who took him down! Star was all like "RAAARGH!" and she threw me at him and I was all like PIIIOOOW! And then I morphed into a pterodactyl and Mod was all like "No!" and I was all like "Oh yeah!" And then we pulled off his armor and he was all like "Damn you kids!" and we were all like-" Beast Boy continued to monologue in the background, acting out bits of battle as he went forwards and backwards through the previous day.

"How did the nooby do, Robin?"

"He did pretty well."

"Awesome!" I exclaimed. They both looked round at me. "Well, "he did pretty well." Coming from you I'd say is like a full blown compliment!"

"Don't get cocky, rookie, it was only Mod." Robin tried to dampen my enthusiasm.

"Didn't he once kidnap you and take over the entire city… It took you ages to beat him that time didn't it?" I smirked.

Cyborg couldn't help it, he smiled and said, "He raises a fair point."

Robin sighed and walked off to write a report on the battle. "Good job, Void." Cyborg punched my arm, lightly, before going off to do a system check. Beast Boy kept monologue-ing right behind him.

Starfire drifted over. "Congratulations on a job well done, friend!" She smiled, enveloped me in a hug then flew over to Robin with her hands clasped in front of her and an offer of "A Tamaranian head-rub to increase clarity of short term memory." Or something.

Raven walked over to me. "Come to give me some praise?" I said, grinning.

In her trademark deadpan style she replied. "No. You're just standing in front of the only exit."

"Oh."

"Excuse me."

I moved out of the way.

"Thanks."

"No prob-" The elevator door shut in my face. "-lem. Heh."

"Dude! You saw me, right? 'Cause Cy doesn't believe that I was the key element to catch Mod!"

"Yeah, you were awesome. How Starfire threw you, and you turned into a flying dinosaur thing! Pretty cool."

"I know! Tell Cyborg! Please?"

: T : T : T : T :

Darkness. A pale skinned, tattooed, teen stood in a circle of light.

"_The time has come. Crawl out of the woodwork, and burn that which used to keep you captive."_

"Are you givin' me da word?"

"_Yes, Johnny. Consider the word given."_

"It's just, sometimes you use words that you don't mean, I know you boss."

Johnny Rancid grinned. The voice from the darkness turned icy.

"_You do **not **know me, Rancid. Just gather your gang and go."_

"Sure thing. I always love chaos."

Johnny Rancid turned and walked out. When he was out of earshot the voice spoke from the darkness again.

"_Imbecile."_

: T : T : T : T :

**WRIIIII!**

The Titan alarm went off, and a the main screen came to life. It projected a map with one location circled.

"Titans! Trouble!" Robin leapt into action.

"Really?" Said Raven, sarcastically.

Ignoring her, he continued, "Johnny Rancid is making trouble downtown!" He was already running for the garage and the R-Cycle.

Robin **really **doesn't like Johnny Rancid.

: T : T : T : T :

We went out in a formation, Robin and his bike out front, followed by the T-Car with the flying Titans in a diamond shape above it.

As we reached the main street we found Rancid, standing next to his bike, swinging a chain above his head, shouting orders to about a dozen goons. Robin sped up, aiming directly towards Johnny Rancid. "Bring 'em down, Titans!"

Rancid jumped on his hog, span it towards the speeding Boy Wonder, and revved the engine. VRRM! VRRM!

"Lets start a party boys!" he shouted, and gunned it towards Robin.

The thugs started running towards us.

At the last second Robin and Rancid swerved away from each other. SSSKKKRRRCCCHH! They came to a swerving stop, now on opposite sides.

The thugs ran past Robin and the T-Car practically flew past Rancid. One of the thugs came to a stop as he saw the car hurtling towards him. SKKRRCH! The T-car turned sideways and stopped inches away from the villain. He sighed with relief when-

SMACK!

The T-Car door opened with a great force sending the thug twenty metres backwards, and into a lamppost. THUNG! He slid down it and landed in a crumpled pile, still except for unconscious breathing.

Starfire flung starbolts at the still Johnny Rancid. FLASH! FLASH!

SW-SWFFT! He span his chain around, somehow deflecting the extraterrestrial weapons.

Robin drove his bike back towards Rancid, readying his birdarangs. Rancid turned round to see the Boy Wonder bearing towards him at high speed. Robin threw a birdarang, which slashed Rancid's arm before returning to Robin's hand. Rancid jumped off his bike, clutching his wound.

"SHIT! I'll learn you, ya little pipsqueak! RRAAGH!" He hurled the end of his chain towards Robin, wrapping around the caped crusaders arm. He then flung his arm out, which sent a pull down the chain, throwing Robin from his bike.

He then pulled on the chain again, ducking as Robin was sent flying over him, into the side of a building. THUMP! He repeated this, sending Robin into a bench and then finally the chain slackened as Robin was sent flying into a dumpster. THUNG!

"HAHAHAHA! I am the top dog!"

"Negative! You a far from being the canine of the crest!"

"…Say what?"

"RRRGH!" Starfire flung another volley of starbolts at him. FL-FLASH!

One plowed right into Rancid's chest, sending him stumbling backwards. A red burn appeared on his chest.

"You bitch!" He turned and whistled over his shoulder. "Wanna see my pack? Rex!"

"Is that a 'come of the on' that Beast Boy talks about?"

A mechanical dog ran round the corner of a building down the main street.

"Sic 'em!"

"EEP!" She fired off a round of starbolts that only managed to impact on the surface.

"RRAAAWWR!" It leapt for her, but in mid-air Robin connected a boot to the side of it's face, knocking it sideways with a CLANG!

"Where does Rancid get the money for these things?"

: T : T : T : T :

Meanwhile, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven and I were trying to bring down the thugs. When Cyborg had knocked one of them flying, they had all scattered.

POW! He fired a short sonic blast at one of the thugs, who had just tried to raise his head. Cyborg looked at us. "Void, help out Robin and Star, we can handle these goons."

I nodded and flew off in the direction of the giant mechanical dog.

Cyborg looked back in the direction of the thugs, hiding behind various cars, bins and street lamps. "Okay. On the count of three we rush them. One, Two…"

: T : T : T : T :

The giant dog had Starfire gripped around the middle, but using her immense alien strength she somehow managed to stop it clamping all the way down.

Robin was busy exchanging blows with Johnny Rancid. Of course, exchanging is a loose term, it was more Robin beating Rancid with a staff and who would then swear, try to punch the Boy Wonder and miss. Rinse and repeat.

I created a black hole on my wrist, and used it to slice all along the side of the robotic hound. PHIII-IIII-III-ISH!

It snarled, dropped Starfire and turned to face me.

"Err… good doggy?"

"Negative! Dreadful canine!"

SMACK! She connected with a fist. It was sent up into the air. CRUNCH! Another punch and the dog flew backwards into a building side.

She charged up a couple of starbolts and looked at me. I smiled and create another void blade on my wrist. Together we flew at the robotic dog, and it was helpless against our combined onslaught.

PHIISH! I sliced a pipe running to its jaw. CRRCH! Starfire caved in a section of armour. Within seconds we had brought it to it's knees, before the machine chose to shut down.

Crunch. It fell on it's side, crushing a waste can.

"To quote Cyborg: "Boo to the Yaah of victory! You son of a female earth canine! Give me a hive of the fie!" She slapped my hand, sending me into a spin. "Appropriate, yes?"

"… sure, why not." I replied not wanting to disappoint Starfire. But when her back was turned I whispered. "ow."

Robin, however, was now struggling to fight off Johnny Rancid. Having retrieved his chain he was holing off the Boy Wonder, while also getting in the odd blow.

"Give it up, Rancid! Your dogs toast, and your gang is a complete waste of our time. We could just leave them for the police, bag you and be on our way. Don't make us beat you any more than is necessary."

Rancid looked down the street, where his dozen gang members were being handcuffed by the remaining Titans and various members of the police force.

"They haven't even sent anyone from the omega wing. That just shows what you really are, an annoyance! Now give up!"

"RRRGH! I'm better than that! I'll show you all!" He reached under his shirt, to a suspicious looking bulge, and pulled out a handgun. "I'll be remembered all around this city for killing the Titans. Even if I end up with a life sentence… It'll be worth to see the look on your face as you lie dying, you piece of shit!"

BANG! He fired his pistol at Robin, who dived out of the way, behind a bin.

"Fine! I'll just kill your girlfriend then!" He turned and pointed his gun upwards, towards Starfire.

BANG! I flew in front of Starfire, using a void on my arm as a shield, which swallowed the bullet. But still, I was knocked back by the unexpected strength of the impact.

Robin gritted his teeth and ran towards the insane teen. Swinging his bo-staff around, he connected with Rancid's gun hand, knocking the weapon away. Then Robin was close enough to use his fists. SM-SMACK! Rancid span away dizzy.

Robin kept coming. CRACK! He kicked one of Rancid's knees out, while bringing his own knee up so that CRUNCH! Rancid's face impacted off Robin's knee.

Rancid rolled away, got up but stumbled and Robin leapt at him again, this time gripping the villain's arms behind his back.

He pushed forward as he kicked the legs from under Rancid, bringing him to floor.

Robin grabbed Rancid's head. SMACK! Rancid's face rebounded off the floor and Robin rolled him over, unconscious. He raised his fist again, ready to punch his foe's face in but me and Starfire rushed in and held him back.

He snarled, but strained only for a second. I could now tell he was hyperventilating. He stopped struggling and looked up.

The Commissioner of the police force stood a little way away. "We helped your team round up the remains of his gang." He was quite an old man, spoke gruffly, walked with a stick and wore an old, long, cream overcoat. He looked pointedly at the battered and bruised Johnny Rancid lying on the floor. "Looks like Mr. Rollins here took quite a beating during your fight. All in the name of justice I suppose. We'll take it from here. As always, thanks for bringing in the crook."

He walked away, and two of the police force cuffed the villain, inspected him for injuries and finding nothing serious put him in the back of a police van.

We stood like that, me and Starfire still holding Robin for a second longer. The Starfire let go and Robin pulled himself from my grip.

"…Robin?"

He walked to his bike. "I'm going to go and write this up."

VRRM! He sped off, towards the Tower, leaving Starfire and I standing watching after him, both confused.

Cyborg put his arms around us both. "Don't y'all worry 'bout him. He'll be fine. But we finished these punks real quick, huh? I wonder what they were doing here though…"

: T : T : T : T :

A pitch black room with only a circle of light in the middle. However, a TV screen had been showing the Titans battle. _"Goddammit!" _The voice from the darkness screamed. A knife flew out of the shadows and smashed through the glass of the screen. The image on the TV blinked out.

: T : T : T : T :

In the darkness of a government bunker, the half-mangled head of Johnny Rancid's Rex lay on the ground. The main body of it almost completely intact. The setting sun cast a shaft of light over the still robot, making it seem almost red.

: T : T : T : T :

Robin sat in the main room, at a computer desk, typing away at a report. He paused. And deleted all of what he had just written. A second passed. He started typing again.

Starfire sat watching him from the sofas in the centre of the room, a look of concern on her face.

By the elevator, Raven watched them both for a second. Then with a swish of her cloak she was behind Robin. He didn't look up, but continued to type his report. "I'm busy, Raven."

"Okay. But I'm going to say my piece and you are going to listen." He stopped typing. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"I nearly-"

"But you **didn't**. That is all that matters at this stage. It won't happen again."

Robin turned around, "Raven, I-" But she was already in the elevator, pressing the button to go down.

Robin sighed and turned back to his report.

Starfire continued to watch, but now with a hint of a smile on her lips.

Eventually, Robin finished his report, read it through one last time and saved the document.

: T : T : T : T :

I stood in the training area, out in the grass. Behind me the sun was setting. I created my wrist-voids. Dark circles sprang to life on my arms. I waved them through the air a few times. PH-PHVIISH!

Cyborg stood behind a desk, with various controls on it. "You ready for this, dawg?"

I nodded.

Two disc cannons popped out of the ground, firing their payloads at me. PF-PFFT! Four discs flew towards me. Slicing my wrists in an X, shattering the first two.

PH-PHVIISH! I 'caught' the other two using the two voids, absorbing them into the black holes. Then I flew at full speed at the cannons.

PHVIISH! I flew straight past them, and landed in a croush with my arms outstretched behind me.

A second passed.

BOOM! The two launchers exploded.

A floating launcher rose in front of me, and another behind. Catching their first shots in my wrist-voids, I flew straight up, and predictably the two launchers fired at each other below. BOOM!

"Okay, dawg, last one for today!"

A laser turret rose from its concealed position on the floor. In mid-air I turned, creating a pre- emptive void in front of me.

BLAM! BLAM!

My black hole swallowed the two shots up. I flew directly at the turret, closing the hole, just as I reached it.

BL-BL-BLAM! The turret went into auto-fire, spraying dozens of shots at me.

I raised my wrists in front of me, and went into a spin, dodging as many shots as possible and using my voids to absorb those I couldn't dodge.

I reached the turret, brought both arms back over my head, arching my legs and back. Then I unleashed the coiled energy of my body, bringing my arms and legs down and up respectively.

PHVIIISH!

BZZT-BZZT!

The turret sparked for a second before-

BOOM!

"Nice work Void! You did some good work today, in training and in the field."

"Thanks Cy."

The mechanical man had offered to give me some training, and I had immediately said yes. Cyborg is a good teacher.

"Let's get back for dinner! Last one there's as simple as a 555 chip!"

"A wha-? Hey, get back here!"

And as we raced back to the Tower the sun finally finished setting.


	8. A Flower for the Lady

With annoying regularity I find myself with nothing to say. Either that or I say something stupid or insensitive. And as I stand here, with somebody I barely know, I try desperately to think of something to say. Her father died yesterday and I have no idea how to comfort her. I think she senses my nervousness because she surprises me by hugging me. She smiles, the first time I see that smile "Smell ya later, ya big geek." Honestly, I do not understand her.

: T : T : T : T :

"Void. Come to the Main Room immediately." Cyborg's voice rang out over the comm. system. In my room I stood up and rapidly flew out of the door. Up the stairs. To the main room entrance and stopped.

The doors remained closed.

The doors slowly… slowly opened and I flew to Cyborg. "Bank, sector 4. Go now."

"By myself?"

"You gotta learn to deal with it and we'll have your back if you need it. Two men, both armed. Go!"

I nodded and flew out a window into the night. Finally! My first solo mission.

: T : T : T : T :

: A bank vault. Two thieves. A man lying on the ground. A woman staring at the man.

The bank vault was broken open. The two thieves had guns. The man on the ground was bleeding. The woman's head was down.

The woman looked up and saw. One of the thieves looked shocked, his smoking gun evidence of his guilt. The man wasn't breathing.

She raised her arms, from one of her hands came lengths of multicoloured wire. Spaced out on the wire were sharp barbs. This 'wire' shot towards one of the robbers and wrapped around him. A second shot was fired from the gun, this time harmlessly downwards.

The second robber took aim. The woman's other hand moved in his direction and more of the colourful barbed wire shot out. The wire wrapped around his body and he dropped the gun. :

I had got there too late. Everything was over when I entered the bank. I had asked to see the recording of what happened, and after I watched it I sent it to Cyborg to judge.

"_Find out who she is. Bring her back to the tower and we'll see what she's made of."_

"Roger."

I snapped the communicator shut.

I watched the security video over, watched as the young woman captured two armed robbers. She proceeded to somehow fuse the two sets of 'wire' and left the two thieves effectively tied up, together.

"This all happened?" I asked the policeman who had shown me in here. The guy nodded. "Who is she?"

"I don't have a clue, just that she was in here with some guy called…" he flicked through his notebook, "Arnold Johnson, the guy that got shot." He looked up, but I was already gone. "Damn kids, think they're all that …" he muttered under his breath.

I was already making my way across the city. I intended to find out who this girl was. My suit made this task easier, flying me across the city in much quicker time. As always when I flew past people looked up, wondering if there was an emergency nearby.

This time, however, I was going to the hospital.

: T : T : T : T :

I landed outside the main doors and went in on foot. I went to the desk and asked for "Arnold Johnson". The room was empty except for the blonde at the reception, who continued to type at the computer as she answered.

"Are you family?" the receptionist asked. I stared.

She looked up.

I stared.

She continued to look blankly.

I sighed.

"No."

"Sorry, only family members are allowed into the morgue." She went back to her computer. When she looked back into the waiting room it was empty.

: T : T : T : T :

I followed the signs to the morgue, trying to keep a low profile. As low a profile can be when you wear a mask. However, I managed to get to the morgue without being seen.

Through the window in the door, I could see the back of a woman standing over a body on a table. As she turned I could see it was the girl I was looking for. She has shoulder length black hair and bright green eyes; even through the tears on her face I can see that she is pretty.

I waited until she walked out of the room before speaking to her. "I'm sorry," I said as sincerely as possible, "perhaps if I'd got there sooner…" I trailed off.

She walked past me without acknowledging me. I walked alongside her. "Were you there when…" I trailed off again.

She sped up.

I stopped. "You have powers, you could use them to stop things like this happening!"

Down the corridor she stopped. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" She screamed, turned and shot the multi-coloured streams from her hands.

I reacted too slowly and the wires wrapped me up. I overbalanced, tried to step forward but instead fell with a THUD! With a sob she ran away and out of sight.

: T : T : T : T :

"_Couldn't you have been a bit more sensitive?" _Cyborg's image on my communicator berated me. _"Do you not have any idea what going through something like that is like?"_

"We don't even know if she's related to the guy…" I mumbled half-heartedly trying to talk my way out of a telling-off.

"_Don't you pay attention? Only relatives are allowed in the morgue, think about it dawg. I'm gonna send in Star to help. Maybe she can convince the girl to talk to us."_

"Sure."

"_Over and out." _The communicator screen went black. Great. Now my first mission was a failure and would be counted as Starfire's success… Not that I didn't like having the Tamaranian around, but it would have been nice to have my first solo mission a triumph.

: T : T : T : T :

Starfire and I were to meet on the roof of the hospital. When she saw me she waved cutely. I began to wave goofily back, caught myself and changed it into a salute. Needless to say she looked confused when she landed. She waggled her hand in the air and then brought it up to her temple, returning my 'salute'. I sighed.

"Friend Void, why do you expel air in such a fashion?" Starfire was cute, but sometimes a little difficult to understand. "Are you in need of a recuperation? If so I will be happy to work alone until you are convalesced." She smiled. How did she manage to do everything so cutely?

"Don't worry about it Star."

"Very well. Cyborg has provided us with data concerning the dwelling of the deceased. I suggest that we venture there first in our searches for the girl."

"Sounds okay to me."

She smiled, clasped her hands in front of her and took to the air. "Glorious! Let us depart swiftly from the healing houses."

"Uhh… okay?"

SHWOOSH!

She flew past me. I too took to the air and tried to catch up with her.

: T : T : T : T :

We flew to the coordinates and address Cyborg had given Starfire. It was a sleepy suburb, quiet, probably little to no crime. Each house was a bungalow, and each one of them looked the same. The closest thing to paradise in Jump City.

In each of the windows warm light flooded through the gaps in the curtains, lighting up the gardens. Except for one; where all of the lights were off.

This was the house.

We landed on the roof of a house across the street, watching the house for signs of life.

Eventually, Starfire floated down to the door. Knock! Knock!

A teary eyed girl opened the door. "What?"

Starfire bit her lip and then suddenly was engulfing the girl in a hug. "Oh do not cry, my little bumgorf…"

I stood nervously to the side, unsure of whether or not to say or do something. In the end, because there was nothing I really could do, I did nothing.

: T : T : T : T :

Some time later, Starfire sat by the girl, on her sofa. I stood behind, still unsure. Starfire eventually spoke up. "I wish you to come to the Tower with us. Then you would not be alone at such a difficult time. And perhaps, if you wish, you could learn to use your powers. Although, from what Void tells us, you are already quiet proficient with them."

I blushed, embarrassed that I had been beaten by a complete beginner, thankfully, I was standing behind them so neither girl noticed.

"I suppose I can come…" She muttered.

"Wonderful! We can depart their immediately if you wish." The girl nodded. "Would you like one of us to fly you there?"

For the first time since I entered the house the girl looked at me, sadly with something akin to contempt in her eyes. "As long as he's not the one to take me. He's probably just drop me."

: T : T : T : T :

We landed on the top of Titans Tower, Starfire let the girl down gently. The flight had exhilarated her, she was almost breathless with excitement. Probably closer to how she normally was, but as the other Titans came out onto the rooftop she became more sullen again.

"Welcome to Titans Tower." The Boy Wonder greeted the teenage girl with an offered hand. She ignored it.

"I know where I am."

Robin didn't even blink. He lowered his hand, suddenly more business like. "What is your alias?"

"Pardon?"

"I assume that the reason you agreed to come with Starfire and Void, is to become a crime fighter."

"I guess…"

"So your alias is?"

"Uh… I guess you can call me … Rose."

Robin raised an eyebrow beneath his mask. She shot a length of her tangled wires at the floor.

"'Cause it's kinda like a rose stem?"

"Good choice."

"Thanks. Now how do I sign up to join this freak show?"

"Well naturally, we'll have to run some psychological tests on you, to make sure your hero material. And then I would suggest that you join the other wing of the Titans."

"How come?"

"You live here. People probably know you, we prefer not to let our heroes work in the cities they come from, at least to begin with. So if you pass the psychological tests, the chances are we'll send you to Steel City and the Titans East."

"Well at least I won't have to work with that jerk. What's his name, soiled?"

"_Hey!"_

"Quiet rookie."

"Heh heh. I might just get used to this heroing lark yet."

"_At least you made her smile…"_

"Shut up moron."

: T : T : T : T :

The Titans East sat in their main room in Steel City, a mirror of the Titans in Jump City, who appeared on their main screen.

Bumblebee was speaking. "Sure, we'd love to take on a new member. Heck, it'll be nice to have someone who isn't bubbling over with testosterone."

Speedy leapt to her side. "Not to mention that another girl in the Tower can only be good news!" He winked through his mask. Bee snarled and elbowed him in the stomach. He bent over doubling coughing, but through the spluttering "It was worth it…" could just be made out.

"We'll make sure we keep you updated with her progress." Aqualad spoke from the sofa. The twins of Mas and Menos looked, as always when the Titans talked, confused. "I don't suppose she speaks Spanish?"

: T : T : T : T :

The next day, and we had taken Rose to the train station.

Although she hadn't been with us for more than a night and a morning, Starfire was still sad to see Rose go. "I wish that you would be able to learn to become a hero with us…" She pouted. "It would have been nice. We could have had the 'girly nights in' with Raven."

"Sure would. I'm sure we'll do it sometime. Maybe we could swap the boy Titans for you and Raven, over in Steel City?"

Robin looked up, "Actually, that's not a bad idea… Maybe not a girl-boy swap. But perhaps an exchange program…" He trailed off, considering the possibilities.

I walked over to Rose. "Sorry we got off on the wrong foot."

"Don't worry about it, you're just an insensitive moron, it's not your fault."

"…thanks…"

"I know you did your best." And surprisingly she gave me a hug. "Heh heh! Smell ya later, ya big geek!"

"I wish to instigate the 'group hug'!"

"Way ahead of you, Star!" Beast Boy ran over and dived into the hug. Starfire flew over, grabbing Robin's collar on the way. Finally, Cyborg pushed Raven in and put his long arms around us all.

"Good luck, Rose."

And as she walked onto her train, despite the fact that I barely knew her and she had insulted me from almost the moment I had met her, I felt a great sadness that she was walking away from us. The train pulled out of the station and away from us.

I sighed as we walked away. Beast Boy jumped in front of me. "Dude! You so have a crush on her!"

"I do not! I barely know her!"

"Awww! The noobie has a crush!" I pushed him away with from me with my palm on his forehead.

"Don't make me open a black hole underneath you…"

Beast Boy chuckled and skipped off. He's a strange boy. And completely wrong.


	9. A Ride to Remember

I hate it when villains use distractions. For example where they might set a bomb somewhere. What do you do? Fight the villain and hope that you can force them to stop the bomb, or that the bomb is a hoax. Or do you go after the bomb, hoping that it is the major part in the plan or that it is important enough for your foe to try and protect it personally? Luckily for the Titans, we can just split in two.

: T : T : T : T :

The day after Rose left and everybody was still feeling a bit down. We had had a message from the Titans East, telling us that Rose had arrived safely. But it still felt wrong that she had gone away. We were all sitting around the main room waiting for something to happen.

As usual when you wait for something to happen… Nothing did.

Eventually, it was lunch time and Cyborg suggested we go out to try and raise our spirits.

We decided to go to the Bayside Plaza for pizza. Soon the Titans were swapping war stories, some of them I'd heard before, almost all of Beast Boy's, which seemed to have got more fantastical and involved him even more than last time. Robin and Raven as always were pretty quiet. But then-

"Robin, do you not have any stories to share?" Starfire smiled at Robin and his composure seemed to melt like a piece of butter in a saucepan.

"I- uh… umm."

"Please Robin?"

"Yeah, dude you never tell anybody anything from your Gotham days!"

"C'mon dawg!"

"Fine." He paused for a second, thinking of a story to tell. "Okay. Well it all began when Batman had almost caught Penguin, in the natural history museum. He was there to steal…"

: T : T : T : T :

In a darkroom with only a circle of light in the middle of the darkness and a screen giving any light. On the screen was a man with shoulder length hair and glasses, the top of a yellow armor vest could be seen on his chest. He spoke with a British twang. "We could do with an extra set of hands with this."

"_Why should I help you?"_

"You will be paid. And of course because so far your little exercise has been a complete failure. Every crime you have tried to organize has failed miserably. The Titans have seen to that. Not even a blip on the radar of the underground."

"… _What did you have in mind, Murphy?"_

"Something for which, if you're good enough, you can beat the Titans as well as making a splash in the pool of crime. All you have to do is cause a distraction downtown."

"_Is it that simple?"_

"Without being too obvious."

"_That goes without saying."_

"We taught you well." 'Murphy' on the screen smiled. "Then do we have a deal, Grant?"

A figure walked into circle in the middle of the room. He wore a light blue skintight costume, with the bottom half of his torso and right arm a darker blue, he also had a yellow utility belt and thigh length boots. Over his shoulder he had a long sword and on his hips he had two long knives.

"I will give you your distraction… and I'll bring the Titans to their knees too."

The figure on the screen spoke one last time before the screen went blank. "Long live H.I.V.E."

: T : T : T : T :

"-and then the Joker slipped on his own oil slick and managed to knock himself out." The Titans stared in open-mouthed amazement. "What?"

"Dude. That was amazing!"

Suddenly, parts on everybody's costumes started to light up. Robin flipped open his communicator. "Titans, there's been a car-jacking, the suspects on the highway. Go!" He had already started running for his R-Cycle.

Cyborg ran for the T-Car, Beast Boy quickly following. "I'm not gonna be able to keep up if we're going on the highway." He strapped himself into the passenger seat. "Let's roll!"

Raven, Starfire and I flew in a V shape with Raven at the head.

We soon arrived at the highway. It was obvious which car had been jacked, because it was swerving in and out of the traffic, both over taking and undertaking. It was a red sports car, but its sides were scratched. Plus it had two cop cars, sirens wailing, vainly trying to keep up.

Beneath us three flying Titans, the R-cycle and T-Car swerved onto the highway from one of the feeder roads. Robin immediately gunned the engine and quickly caught up with the police cars trailing the jacked car.

Cyborg was more conservative, having to be more careful with the large T-Car. Luckily people eventually took notice and started to try and make way for the blue car.

The driver of the hijacked car obviously decided to take an easy route and turned onto a practically empty bit of highway. The two Titans on wheels followed, along with the two police cars and us three flying Titans.

Suddenly one of the police cars swerved, and BOOM! A plume of flame lit up the side of it. Whoever was in the stolen car, he had firebombs.

Robin's voice rang out on the communicators. _"Star, Void get to the police and try and protect them from explosives and possible gunfire. Raven, try and get a grip on the car, or its brakes. Try and slow it down. Cyborg, Try and get close, but don't let yourself get by whatever the driver tries."_

A group of affirmative responses replied him.

The V formation broke as we went for our separate targets.

I pushed my suit to it's limits but managed to catch up with the speeding police car. To save my suit, I landed on the roof and activated my wrist voids. PHVISH! I raised my arms in a cross over my chest, ready for action. I became acutely aware of the rushing ground beneath us, and I decided to keep as far away as possible.

On the other car, Starfire had done a similar thing with her starbolts, charging them.

Between us Raven flew, muttering to herself, either her magic words or something to calm her down. She was flying with her arms backwards, making herself as streamlined as possible, but as her muttering increased she reached one arm forward towards the red sports car.

The car was engulfed with black telekinesis for a second but it immediately shattered., without affect. Raven frowned, concentrating again.

FLASH! Starfire fired a starbolt at something. BOOM! A fireball, from the firebomb, soared beneath Raven. In mid flight she twirled, caught off guard by the flame and tumbled through the air.

Luckily, the T-car drove right underneath her, with the sun roof open and Beast Boy caught Raven in his arms. He deposited her in the back seat, before sitting back in the front. Raven lay still for a second, hyperventilating.

On his motorcycle, Robin snarled and went full-throttle, he managed to get closer to the car and he reached into his utility belt. But the driver of the stolen vehicle had other ideas, he swerved to the left.

Thinking ahead of the game, I took flight again. As fast as I could I caught up with Robin, just in time to catch the thrown fire-bomb in one of my wrist-voids.

Robin nodded his thanks. I saluted and then slowed down enough to land back on the cop car. Robin brought back his hand, now holding a birdarang. He threw his weapon, aiming for a wheel.

However, the driver of the car managed to swerve out of the way, and the birdarang stuck into the road and was quickly lost to sight behind us.

"_Starfire, bring him down!"_

"_Affirmative Robin!"_

Starfire leapt into the air. For a second she didn't move, but seemed to go backwards, and then she was flying forwards. At a high speed she flew upwards to gain a better position to fire.

Then she snarled and began to unleash her starbolts. FL-FL-FL-FLASH!

Somehow, the driver managed to dodge the fusillade, swerving this way and that. However, Starfire managed to get one shot on target, melting part of the roof of the car.

Starfire spoke of the comm.. system. _"The driver appears to be wearing a costume of some sort. Thusly I expect him to be a professional villain rather than a normal citizen in search of cash."_

"_That explains his skill at driving and his weapons. Okay Star, pull back. Cyborg, try and get the T-Car closer, I have an idea…"_

: T : T : T : T :

The prison of Jump City was quiet, as all of the prisoners were indoors. There were a few guards around, patrolling the walls. These guards wore body armour, helmets and carried rifles, they were the Omega Wing Guard. Trained to protect the prison in the case of criminals escaping. The prison itself was pretty standard high security gaol, high walls, the odd lookout tower one gate.

In a nearby forest, a yellow and black hovercraft settled down. Two HIVE guards jumped out, checked the area and waved out the occupants.

First a green jump-suited, bald kid with a controller on his stomach and a backpack behind him. On his head he had a pair of goggles.

Then a giant, red headed monster. He wore a black sleeveless jumpsuit with yellow bolts. He began cracking his joints.

Finally a leather clad, pink-haired goth stepped out. Her tight outfit had blue frills around her collarbone and about her neck she had a locket.

Gizmo, Mammoth and Jinx.

They walked to the edge of the trees, looking for anyone who might be able to see them. Spotting a security camera, Jinx flung a pink wave of pure unluck at the things mounting. It continued to turn, but never went far enough to spot the HIVE trio.

Gizmo looked at his watch, waited a few seconds then nodded to the other two. Jinx and Mammoth ran over to the walls. Mammoth stood hands clasped together low, Jinx took a running jump, landed on his hands and was catapulted high into the air and onto the prison walls.

She looked around, checking the area and then said into her mouthpiece. "Area clear."

Gizmo activated wings from his backpack and flew up to meet her on the walls. He then dropped a rope over the side and attached it to the floor with a clawed grip. Mammoth then pulled himself up, using the rope, and pulled himself onto the floor.

Jinx nodded to the other two, and they all ran off down a corridor.

: T : T : T : T :

The almost empty highway stretched before us, empty except for the hijacked car, us pursuing him, and in the distance a Wayne Corp. lorry.

The T-Car had got quite close to the stolen car now, a firebomb was thrown, but it was quickly encased in Raven's black magic and was taken apart.

Robin rode his R-Cycle directly behind the T-Car, using it as protection.

He revved it for a second, pulled a wheeley, and used the back of the T-car as a ramp. He sailed over the T-Car, over the stolen car and landed, swerving slightly as he regained control.

From this new position, he looked back. "Pull over! This is your last chance!" He shouted to the driver. The masked villain merely snarled and tried to give the car even more speed.

Robin reached into his utility belt and his hand came out holding a handful of smoke pellets. He threw these directly backwards, breaking through the windscreen and into the car, filling it with smoke.

The driver, for his part didn't even falter. He must have known that the road was straight, and didn't even slow down.

However, a sword smashed through the remains of the windscreen, smoke began to pour out.

: T : T : T : T :

Mammoth was on his own now. The other two had separate missions, and he had to accomplish his. But he heard footsteps around the corner, so he jumped up to the ceiling, arms and legs outstretched, holding him in position.

An Omega Wing Guard walked underneath him, paused and looked up.

CRACK!

Mammoth let go of the walls and just fell onto the guard. Leaving the guard in a supply closet he continued towards his target.

: T : T : T : T :

Jinx was in the Omega wing itself, where they kept the worst villains. She danced past various different holding cells, avoiding the cameras and various security equpiment.

Cinderblock, hanging in the air, unable to move, in a zero gravity room.

The central card of Overload was in a room made of plastic.

Control Freak, in a room filled with various screens, watching some Star Trek re-run.

The old man who became Mumbo Jumbo sat sadly in a room, playing with a pack of cards.

Jinx stopped. In the reflection of Mad Mod's glass cage, she could see a guard walking down the corridor. She thought fast, turned to the cell containing a sleeping man, suspended in liquid. And flung a hex wave at the controls.

The man in the cell stirred, groaning as he came to. Hearing this, the Omega Wing guard came running round the corridor, calling into his communicator. He then started tapping at the console attached to the liquid cell. "There's something wrong with Plasmus' holding cell. It seems to have… send a techie down here, it's okay now, but something went wrong. Over."

Jinx was already running, with various acrobatics to avoid cameras, down the corridor towards her target.

: T : T : T : T :

Gizmo was crawling through the ventilation system, on his hands and knees. He checked a screen on his wrist, and obviously had reached the point he needed. He looked through a panel, the control room for the cells.

He grabbed his controller, readying his lasers and then waited. The time reached 13:08. He spoke into his communicator. "Time to go Scuzzwads."

The responses came back.

"_I am in position."_

"_Me too."_

"Okay then. Team leader says go!"

Gizmo leapt through the ventilation cover and landed in the control room. BLAM! BLAM! The two guards in the room fell to their knees. Gizmo leapt to the computer and started typing, behind him the metal computerized door shut.

: T : T : T : T :

Mammoth smashed through a door into the security room. The prison had two different ones, one for the cells and a separate one for the prison itself.

He grabbed the two guards who were at computers, and tossed them over his shoulders into the wall. He sat down at the computer and began to type. If he and Gizmo went wrong then the alarms would go off. And all of Omega Wing would know they were there.

: T : T : T : T :

Jinx sat outside one of the cells, waiting for the door to open.

WRIIIII! WRIIIII!

The alarm. Her eyes shot open in panic, but she quickly narrowed them. She leapt up to the ceiling, tore the cover off a vent and pulled it back on behind her.

She spoke into her communicator. "You idiots! What have you done?"

: T : T : T : T :

A drop of sweat ran down Gizmo's face. He could only hope that Mammoth would be able to shut down the alarms. One of the guards in his room had somehow managed to press the panic button to start the alarm wailing.

"Don't worry Jinx! The Titans aren't gonna be here, we fucked with their Tower, remember?" He started typing again, continuing his mission. "Mammoth? Wanna shut the alarm off for us?"

The alarms stopped.

"_No problem, little man."_

Gizmo snarled. He had done all he could here. If he stayed in the room much longer he'd be swarmed with guards. He had loosened the security system around the target, so he began to make his way back through the ventilation system.

: T : T : T : T :

One of the policeman poked his head through an open window to talk to me, I was still on the roof of the car.

"Aren't one of you Titans going to check out the Omega Wing?" I heard him shout over the wind.

My eyes widened. "What! The Omega Wing?" I looked at my communicator. Usually if the police send a message, then the communicator goes off _and _various parts of the Titan costumes start lighting up. Strange.

I relayed the message to the rest of the team.

Robin spoke first. _"This can't be good. We have to check this thing out."_

"_What about the car thief, dawg? The police don't stand a chance without us."_

"_Good point. Okay Cy, you, Raven and Void bring him in as quickly as possible, then meet us at the prison. B.B., Star and I will go there now."_

"_Okay."_

"_Titans Go!"_

Robin veered off at the next exit, followed by Starfire and Beast Boy morphed into a hawk and flapped after them as fast as he could.

Cyborg spoke over the communicator. _"Okay new plan-" _But he cut himself off when he saw the sports car veer in front of the one other vehicle on the road. The lorry. The thief jumped out, leaving the car on cruise control.

We watched in amazement as he stood on top of the car and executed a backwards somersault, landing on the lorry's load.

"_No way…"_ I could hear Raven gasp inside the T-Car. Then Cyborg spoke again. _"Dawg, take him out. But **be careful**!"_

"Don't worry about me."

I flew towards the lorry and the waiting swordsman. I landed on the lorry's load, with both of my wrist voids ready to slice apart anything he threw at me. I studied him for a second, he wore a blue jumpsuit. I shouted to him from the back of the lorry. "Whoever you are, give up now!"

"Give up, what good would that do me?" He took a step forward, and brought his sword up, towards me. "And you can tell your leader, The Ravager beat you."

He ran forwards, swinging his sword around. I took three steps forward as I brought my wrist voids up, to cut the weapon in half.

PHVSH!

Somehow, they didn't manage to cut through. And I was thrown backwards. I landed on my back but immediately got to my feet again.

That wasn't right…

He swung his sword through the air again, this time I tried to block with only one of my voids. Again I felt the impossible contact, but this time I was spun around. I jumped backwards, towards the front of the lorry now, trying to gather myself.

Perhaps my wrist voids were designed not to be used against living things; the suit probably had a safety mechanism. Oh well, I'd just have to do this the hard way.

He ran at me again, his sword sailing towards me head. SHLINK! I jumped back and he embedded the huge weapon into the trailer's roof.

PHVIISH! I swung my wrist voids at his legs, but he just jumped to avoid them.

: T : T : T : T :

Cyborg got the T-Car as close to the truck as possible. He turned to Raven in the back seat. "Rae? Wanna see if you can convince the truck driver to stop?"

She nodded. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"

Her bird soul self enveloped her and she flew through the T-Car roof and into the seat by the young driver of the lorry.

"Holy shit!"

: T : T : T : T :

The lorry swerved and both the Ravager and I were thrown off our feet.

Then as we climbed to our feet, it began to slow down. I saw Raven's bird form move from the lorry into the sports car, and then that slowed as well.

The Ravager snarled and leapt at me, somersaulting in mid-air. CRSSSHHH! He brought his sword down hard and I only just managed to block with my wrist voids. He swung his sword again, this time to the side, and I was knocked to the floor, winded, as I blocked it.

I opened a black hole directly beneath him, it shut off as soon as he began to fall through it, but it removed part of the trailers roof, sending him falling into the trailer.

The truck came to a stop and Cyborg climbed up onto the roof of the trailer. "Where is he?"

I pointed towards the hole in the trailer.

Cyborg sighed, and jumped into the gloom.

He was surrounded by boxes labeled as dangerous chemicals. "I have a bad feeling about this…"

A voice replied out of the darkness. _"You should."_

Then the half-human saw a blinking red light, something lodged in between two boxes. Bleep. Bleep. Bleep-bleep-bleep. Bleeeeep

"Ah, shit!" He turned and fired his sonic cannon at a wall and ran out of the trailer. "Rae! A shield!"

A black dome surrounded me, Cyborg, Raven and the two police cars. I said through my winding. "The lorry driver!"

Raven frowned, "I'm thinly spread, but I'm trying…Azarath Metron Zin-"

**BOOOOM!**


	10. A Break From Habit

Jinx held herself above the hallway, her left leg on one wall, her right on the other side of the narrow corridor. Her teeth grit, her muscles trembling. She was using her powers of luck to keep herself concealed from the guards below. She was waiting for her companions to reach her. A bead of sweat started running down her pale cheek.

: T : T : T : T :

Beast Boy flapped his wings, straining to keep himself moving at the high speed. Below him, Robin was swerving in and out of traffic in the packed out main street. Starfire was a green blur, making her way much quicker to the gaol. On either side of the road, people stared out of windows in their tall office blocks. Wondering where the three Titans were heading so fast.

The highway was on the wrong side of the city for a quick drive. The only way to get there from where the hijacking was to go straight through the city. And that was taking time.

Soon, even Beast Boy could tell that Robin was taking far too long to get through the traffic on his R-Cycle. Currently he was trying to get past a van, who seemed intent on keeping his exact position in the line of cars, despite Robin's best efforts, he wasn't going to let the Boy Wonder pull out in front of him.

Beast Boy's communicator came to life in his ear, and Robin's voice spoke, pissed off. _"One of you two is going to have to carry me. The traffic here is too thick for me to get through."_

Starfire replied. _"It would be my honour to carry you, Robin!" _Ahead of Beast Boy the green blur stopped, turned and headed at high speed towards Robin's position. Then the blur stopped, became Starfire picking up both Robin and his 'cycle and flew back again, at a much slower pace this time.

Starfire then put Robin's 'cycle on a shops rooftop. And she began to fly much faster again.

The trio made their way much faster now.

: T : T : T : T :

Another trio were also making their way to a destination. Well, two of them were making their way to the third, who was already there.

Gizmo burst out of a ventilation shaft, his mechanical spider-legs were out, as were dual lasers. He looked both ways and then ran down the corridor using the mechanical legs. He ran around a corner and two Omega guards looked up, they raised both their rifles and began firing. BLAM! BLAM!

Gizmo pressed a button on his control pad. An orange force-shield activated around him. The bullets fired by the armoured guards ricocheted off the shield, impacting the clinical metal walls around them. They kept firing not noticing as a pink and black, leather clad goth-girl landed behind them both.

She fired two bolts of hex at their guns, which stopped firing. The guards began to turn, having noticed the pink from behind, but as their guns came to a position where they were pointed at each other, the guns glowed pink again and fired.

BL-BLAM!

The two guards were flung into opposite walls, with chunks out of their armour and bodies.

Gizmo deactivated his shield. "You gonna finish the skuzz-balls off?"

"Killing wasn't part of the mission specs. Just start disabling that door." Gizmo walked to the door, muttering. It was a huge metal circular, safe style entry, it had one huge hinge and a control panel with a computer screen and keyboard on it.

"Just give me a second. Only an absolute nakk-brain wouldn't be able to get through this." He waddled over to the door and connected various leads from his backpack into the keyboard. He frowned. "Okay… this may take a little bit longer than I estimated, the pigs installed some sort of firewall."

Mammoth dived through the door at the end of the corridor, slightly singed. "Ran into a couple of the guards. We're gonna have a whole platoon here if we keep screwing up!"

Jinx spoke through gritted teeth. "Just. Complete. The. Mission." Mammoth could almost see flames in her eyes.

"R-right!"

: T : T : T : T :

The three Titans settled down just inside the walls of the Omega wing doors. Robin spoke, "Let's make it quick!" He slid a card through a swiper on the door and the door opened. He leapt into the clean metal corridor, beyond; all of the lights were out. Robin got out a torch, shining it down the walls. Metal doors with only a window and large locks on were on either side of the passageway.

Robin motioned for the other two to follow him and ran down the corridor.

He came to a skidding stop when he saw one of the doors was open. He checked the name on the door. "See-More." Behind him Starfire snarled and both of her fists became surrounded by green balls of energy. This lit up the corridor in an eerie green glow.

"You rang?" The H.I.V.E. student stood halfway down the corridor, his hand on his helmet from which a light emitted.

"RAAARGH!" Starfire let loose both of her starbolts, their light lit up the corridor as they traveled at high speed towards the villain.

See-More managed to duck one of the alien weapons but the other one caught him full on the face, knocking him over backwards. He scrambled to his feet, blasting with his one eye at Starfire, who was now flying down the corridor, one starbolt encased fist raised high.

Z-ZZAP! Z-ZZAP!

The sheer volume of the firepower caught the Tamaranian off-guard and she was brought tumbling to the ground. Robin leapt over her, towards the villain, blocking his lasers with his bo-staff. He landed and leapt high in the air, still blocking the shots.

Z-ZZAP!

He landed in front of See-More, in a crouch. He then somersaulted backwards, landing a kick on the cyclop's chin as he did so. THWACK!

See-More stumbled backwards and found the Boy Wonder's bo-staff at his throat, turning him around and slamming him against a wall. "I won't tell you anything!" He shouted before he could be questioned.

Robin gripped the criminals shoulders and fell back, placed a foot into his belly and pushed. See-More was sent flailing face first into the metal wall. THUNG!

Robin handcuffed him to a door-handle before continuing down the prison hallway. Starfire flew alongside him.

Beast Boy stopped by the unconscious student. "Dude… You must have pissed him off."

: T : T : T : T :

Jinx paced back and forth as Gizmo tried in vain to open the door. Mammoth poked his head around the door sporadically, checking on the guards who were holed up on the other side of it. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

He turned to Jinx. "Yup. They're still there." Jinx's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing.

"Gizmo, what the hell are you doing? You're taking too long." She gripped him by his backpack and pulled him away from the console. "Mammoth, help me with this. Gizmo, keep an eye on the morons out there."

Mammoth stepped up to the metal hinge and gripped it. Jinx began to charge a huge burst of Hex. "On the count of three, you pull."

Gizmo swore behind them. "Titans!"

Jinx frowned. "THREE! RRRGH!" and she unleashed the huge Hex bolt at the hinge as Mammoth pulled.

SSSCRRRCH!

With a sound of tortuous metal, the door came off the cell.

Jinx put a hand on the wall to steady herself. "Mammoth, help Gizmo with the Titans." Mammoth dragged the huge door and flung it through the opening at the end of the hall.

: T : T : T : T :

Beast Boy and Starfire were just about to get to Gizmo when Mammoth appeared from behind the door and threw the huge cell door at them. Beast Boy managed to turn into a triceratops but they were still sent sliding backwards into the Omega Wing Guards behind.

Robin leapt over the sliding Titans and onto the still moving cell door. From there he jumped to a sliding stop on the floor, flinging his smoke pellets at Gizmo and Mammoth.

: T : T : T : T :

Gizmo and Mammoth staggered back into the hallway, hacking, coughing and spluttering. But Jinx's eyes were on what lay in the room beyond where the door had been.

On a table in the centre of the room, inclined at an angle of about 45 degrees, lay the headmaster of the H.I.V.E. academy. Dozens of wires were attached to his limbs, torso and head. A screen with vital statistics, constantly altering by a couple of points, was by his head.

He had a mask over his face, and a machine nearby was forcing air into his failing lungs. The Omega wing had obviously thought any and all of his robotic parts too dangerous to keep active. So all of his systems had been shut down, and their own life support systems employed.

Before, Jinx had only seen the headmaster standing strong, even when he had half his body replaced with robotic parts he had been strong. He had not even had anesthetic, and he hadn't even flinched when Professor Chang had began cutting through skin and pulling out organs.

But now, he seemed … wrong.

Not because of his half missing limbs, from where Cyborg had torn off his arms.

Nor because the red glow which usually lit the toughened glass, covering his mechanics, had gone, replaced with a dull grey. Even his one robotic eye was dull and lifeless.

But that wasn't the worst part.

He just seemed like an…

Like an old man.

His cheeks were sunken, he had bags under his closed eye and he seemed to have gained dozens of wrinkles.

Jinx walked over to her mentor and put a pale hand on his ashen forehead. His one eye opened, and looked tiredly up at her. As it focused on her, it seemed to gain a little strength.

Jinx opened a panel, revealing a set of robotic parts in the cupboard beyond.

And a small smile grew on Brother Blood's lips.

: T : T : T : T :

Robin was now right in combat with Gizmo and Mammoth, and unfortunately for the Boy Wonder they were using the fact that there were two of them against him.

Mammoth leapt upwards and back, and underneath him swooped Gizmo, now using mechanical wings. BLAM! BLAM! He fired two lasers at Robin, who had to dive out of the way.

SW-SWSSSH! Robin threw a birdarang at the techno-geek, but Mammoth reached forwards and caught the projectile in one huge fist, smothering the small explosion.

He laughed, a deep booming chuckle. "You got nothin' on us bird-b-" A green rhino plowed into his chest, sending him struggling along the corridor. SCRRRCH! His boots gave off sparks from the friction.

Starfire flew into view, eyes blazing green. Her hands were charging starbolts, but not for long. FLASH-BOOM! "What th-?" Gizmo started, but he was cut off when he plummeted to the floor when a wing was blown off.

Mammoth reached down round the rhino's waist and strained, but Beast Boy morphed into a monkey and Mammoth was thrown off-balance as he threw the changeling high in the air.

Robin took advantage of this, took a running jump and plowed his metal-laced boot into the face of the muscled villain. CRASH! Mammoth fell to the floor.

Gizmo leapt to his feet, and with his hands on his controller aimed his lasers at Starfire.

: T : T : T : T :

Jinx stepped back from the table, grinning insanely. "Just give me one moment, child. Go and join your classmates." Came a voice from the table. With one last look Jinx ran back through the cell door and into the maelstrom beyond.

BLAM! BLAM! Starfire was dodging Gizmo's laser shots. Behind him, Robin raised his birdarang to bring the diminutive teen down.

Jinx flung a blur of pink at him.

Just as the birdarang came past his face to be thrown… A chance malfunction in the explosive core of the projectile… BOOM! It exploded, sending the Boy Wonder flying into a wall headfirst.

Starfire used her eye-blast to fight back against Gizmo. Now she was floating in mid-air, as Gizmo ran about on his spider-legs trying to escape the punishment.

Jinx flung a handful of pink above Starfire.

A metal ceiling tile… loosened by the battle, finally tumbled loose of it's mountings… CLUNG! fell from above her, connected with her head and plowed her into the floor.

Mammoth was wrestling with a green gorilla. Then the gorilla morphed into a snake and wrapped around Mammoth's neck, trying to make him lose consciousness in a choke hold.

Jinx threw her pink hex at Mammoth's feet.

…one tiny wet patch on the metal floor, Mammoth stepped towards it… THUNK! Mammoth slipped over and landed on his chest, crushing the snake into the floor. The snake morphed into a bemused Beast Boy.

Robin climbed to his feet.

"Titans! Together!"

Beast Boy stumbled over and Starfire dizzily floated over.

Robin pulled out his bo-staff. Starfire and Beast Boy shook the respective heads. The changeling got into a pose, ready to fight. Starfire floated, glowing starbolts charging in her hands.

Across the corridor from them Jinx shouted. "Formation Epsilon!"

They leapt into a group with Jinx on the left, her legs spread, keeping her low to the ground, her hands ready to throw hex. Mammoth was in the middle, arms folded, arrogantly smirking. And Gizmo was on the right, hands on his joy-pad, ready to start fighting.

Robin got out a fan of birdarangs. "On my mark."

The three HIVE students suddenly stopped preparing themselves for combat, and stood normally.

Robin frowned but shouted, "Go!" anyway. The three Titans began to run forward.

They came to a skidding stop as a red blur came from behind the HIVE trio and landed in front of them. Brother Blood stood, in all his mechanical glory. He wore his usual black trousers, but with no top, his red lighting could be seen illuminating his glass encased parts, energy running through his systems once more, spikes glistening in the dull lighting, and the skull shape on his chest seemed to be grinning. He took a step forward, hands by his side, neutral.

"Run along home, Titans. It's your only hope."

Robin snarled, and leapt forward, bringing his staff around to connect with Brother Blood's skull. Blood stood completely still, until the last second when he brought a spiked wrist up to block the metal rod.

He dropped into a martial arts pose, just for a second, before bringing his other fist forward to punch Robin in the chest.

The Boy Wonder flew back, landing on his back and sliding along the floor.

Beast Boy ran at the red cyborg as a rhino, but Blood leapt into the air and landed on one foot on the point of the green creatures horn. Beast Boy's hooves raised sparks on the floor, but unable to stop, slid into the wall. Brother Blood leapt off at the last possible chance, landing nimbly back in the centre of the corridor.

Beast Boy morphed back to normal, he tried to stand but was unable to get to his feet. He leant a hand on the now dented wall.

Starfire flew in, her eyes blazing with rage, and her fists encased with green energy. She flung her fists at the maniacal villain, but he just kept dodging with apparent ease.

The alien paused, for a second, and Brother Blood took advantage. He flipped backwards, planting his hands on the floor, but his feet in the alien's face.

She was sent upwards into the ceiling and landed on the floor in a heap.

Brother Blood landed back on his feet and took up a pose.

"Where are your other members?" He looked around, expecting a trap. When he saw nothing he turned his attention back to the fallen Titans. "You expected to stop us with only 3 of you?" With no answer, he walked towards a wall, paused and then, with an added red glow to his foot, he kicked through. The metal slab of the wall exploded outwards taking the brick and mortar outer layer with it. The bricks seemed to explode and sent a fountain of dust into the air, obscuring any view. "Give Cyborg my regards."

And all four members of H.I.V.E. disappeared into the smoke.

: T : T : T : T :

Flaming lorry wreckage lay everywhere on the highway, the fire flickering in the wind. Cyborg walked around, looking at a screen on his arm, scanning the area. "This Ravager guy seems to have got away cleanly. The explosions pretty much wiped any trace that I could follow."

Raven sat in mid-air, a vein visible on her temple, an obvious headache building. But she still managed to heal the minor burns of the lorry driver. Her shield had managed to save him for the most part, although it shattered halfway through.

Our own shield had held up thankfully, even as wreckage pummeled it.

So, all in all not a bad mission. No-one died.

On the other hand, with several thousand pounds worth of chemicals destroyed, along with a fair portion of the highway in need of repair. And we hadn't even managed to bring in the criminal responsible.

So not such a good day. Hopefully, the others had had a better one…


	11. A Class of his own

With Brother Blood on the loose once more, a new enemy in the form of The Ravager about and God only knows who else attacking the Jump City, the commissioner of the JPD has decided enough is enough. So, he calls Robin to the HQ and practically demands that the Boy Wonder does something about the rising number of criminals, or else…

: T : T : T : T :

"Or else what?"

The old man sat across the desk front of the caped hero looked directly at the mask covering Robin's eyes. "Or I'll be forced to take the protection of this city completely back into the Police's hands."

Robin's eye-mask narrowed. "What? Make the Omega Wing guards deal with people like Cinderblock? 'Cause they have a great track record with him."

The commissioner sighed, his icy blue eyes dropping down to a card folder underneath his hands. "Not the Omega Wing, no. They're already under review because of the whole H.I.V.E. incident." His scarred and wrinkled face looked back up at Robin, his gruff voice sincere, "I don't want the same thing to happen to the Titans." He turned to the window looking out over the city. It was midday out there; most people were just starting to eat their lunches. The mood was quite calm, despite the breakout the previous day. "Now get the hell out of my office."

Robin was just about to turn and stride out of the office, but his eyes were caught by the folder that the commissioner had been looking at. "Project Alpha Guard".

"I'm sure I just told you to get out."

With a swish of Robin's cloak, he was gone.

In his chair, the old man sagged a little. "They're too young for this job… Much too young..." He paused, then chuckled and added. "Hell, even _I'm _too young for it some days."

: T : T : T : T :

Cyborg bounced a basketball on the ground, the metal of his hand making the ball echo strangely. Beast Boy stood in front of him, ready to strike, he was wearing a red basketball kit, about two sizes too big for him. Cyborg bounced the ball between his legs a few times, and the changeling in front of him shuffled back. "Come on, little man! What ya got?" And with that he charged forward.

B.B. leapt for the ball, and Cyborg pirouetted, strangely mobile for such a large guy. The he ran towards me. My eyes widened as he thundered his way across the court. Then surprisingly, he threw the ball at me.

I wasn't ready.

THUD!

It caught me in the face, my legs swung up and I was sent, comically, to the ground. Beast Boy laughed but then immediately stopped as Cyborg caught the ball again and threw it.

SWISH!

It fell through the ring, and bounced away. Cyborg did his victory dance, basically consisting of old disco moves.

"Hehehe! Even with two guys against me I am unstoppable!"

I stood up and wandered over to where Cyborg was gloating. "You're really going for the black stereotype, huh?"

Cyborg just laughed and quipped, "Dawg, I knew white men can't jump, but I thought you could catch!" I sighed.

Beast Boy jogged over. "Dudes, can we play something else? Basketball with Cy is just unfair."

Cyborg grinned, "What if we got Raven to play?"

"She won't."

"Starfire?"

"Well, when she first got here, Robin taught her cultural things and the like, let's see if he taught her anything _really _important."

: T : T : T : T :

Cyborg, Beast Boy and I were sweating.

"Was that an effective example of 'the slam of the dunk'?"

Through gasps of air, I managed "Fairly effective, yeah."

Starfire pouted, "Only fairly? It seems I am in dire need of more practice." And with that she trotted off to fetch the ball.

B.B. was doubled over, wheezing for air, so I turned to Cyborg. "What happened to white people can't jump?"

"White _men _can't jump, noobie. 1. She's a girl, not a man. And 2. She's not really white, more orange."

I collapsed backwards, and I sat there for a few minutes with my hands on my knees, regaining my breath, while Starfire practiced basketball.

Eventually, I stood up. Next to me Beast Boy was just recovering as well. "Want another go?" I said, nodding towards Starfire.

"No. More. Basketball." He said, still short of breath. Then, he added. "Ever."

: T : T : T : T :

Robin practically flew on his ride back to the Tower. If the Titans' future was in jeopardy then it was time to act.

SCRRRRCH!

With a skid, he came to a stop inside the Titan Garage, a few metres away from the blue and white T-car. He made his way to the elevator and pushed the button that would take him to the Main Room. The doors closed and he could feel the pull down on his stomach as the lift went up.

After a few seconds, it stopped and the lift doors opened. Without glancing about he strode directly to the main computer, sat down in a swivel chair and began typing.

He quickly stopped and pressed a button to activate the intercom.

"Titans, come to the Main Room. Now." He said into a microphone, the message was then relayed all around the Tower.

Raven, who was already in the room stood up from the corner, where she had been reading and sat down on the semi-circular sofas in the middle of the room. Soon enough, the rest of us were assembled there too.

Robin turned around on the chair.

Beast Boy took one look, groaned and whispered, "Aww man… He's gonna make us do work!"

I winced.

Robin began talking. "Firstly, I'd like to say that yesterday was an _atrocious _performance by all of us." Everybody lowered their head in shame, apart from Raven. "I take full responsibility for that failure. I am the team leader, and it is my responsibility to ensure you are prepared for such battles and to _make sure _that that doesn't happen again. From now on, there will be increased _mandatory _training sessions. You will still be able to do it in your own time, but some will be group sessions. This will start today. Get to work." He turned back to the computer console. Just as we were about to leave, he spoke again. "Cyborg, I need your help with something."

Cyborg walked over as most of us left the room, Raven went back to her corner to read. "What do you need, dawg?"

"Just something confused me. When we were chasing the Ravager, we didn't get any alert to the prison break. I thought there might be a glitch."

"A glitch? I wouldn't think so… maybe B.B. accidentally downloaded another virus." Robin got up, letting Cyborg sit down in the chair, so he had better access to the computer.

"I have other things I can be doing, if I know you've got this…"

"Sure thing, better than working out anyway. Heh heh heh!"

Robin walked towards the lift. He practically glared at Raven, still reading, but she didn't so much as look up. He turned his attention back to the lift as he walked into it.

As the doors began to close, it almost felt like someone was watching him. He looked towards both Raven and Cyborg but both were absorbed in their own things. The doors closed.

But Raven hadn't turned a page in her book for some time.

: T : T : T : T :

Three hovering gun platforms flew around me, humming, they were basically semi-automatic lasers with some sort of floating mechanism attached to them. My training consisted of not getting hit by the shots, but because of the increased training hours I wasn't allowed to just destroy them. The object of the game was to last as long as possible without getting hit.

BL-BL-BLAM!

I flew around the gym dodging and diving.

I tried to take note of the 'arena' of sorts that I was in. The cavernous gym had all of the weights and equipment at the sides. Right in the middle, at the top, was a shield generator. From this was emitted a transparent blue force-shield, to protect the people watching and to stop any equipment getting damaged. It created a dome-like fighting space.

The hovering blasters chased me as I vainly tried to escape. The shots fired connected with the shields and dissipated. With a mixture of a barrel roll and a somersault I managed to turn about to face my pursuers and stopped.

They took advantage of my sudden decrease in speed, and unleashed their full speed shots. BL-BL-BLAM!

PHVISH! I opened a void in front of the firestorm, capturing all the shots before they could connect with their target: me.

The hovering guns moved sideways to shoot around the black hole. I closed it before creating voids on my wrists, deciding that the increased maneuverability was a better tactic.

The guns opened fire again, and I started moving again, catching the odd shot in my voids. Eventually, however, the three guns managed to back me into a corner, the floor beneath me and the force-shield at my back. One of the guns was above me, and the other two were slightly to my left and right respectively.

I crossed my voids and created a larger void with the two on my wrists. This managed to block the fusillade, however, it also meant I couldn't see what was happening with the guns. So, I didn't see one of them skirt over the top of my shield and…

BLAM!

"ACK!"

The shot caught me in the knee, knocking me over and the electric shock of it breaking my concentration. The void protecting me vanished.

"Oh dear…"

**BL-BL-BLAM!**

: T : T : T : T :

Robin drove into the city on his R-cycle, driving right into the worst part of the city. Here, every other house was boarded up. Cars were left around without wheels, engines and windows, just dumped on the sides of roads.

Any grass in gardens was either dead or dying. The streets were cracked and suspicious characters were standing around staring incredulously as the Boy Wonder drove past.

Robin ignored all of these, however, and pulled in-between a burned out car and an almost intact one.

As he got off and walked into a gloomy nearby alley, a greasy teenager eyed the bike. He slid forwards and reached out to the handle.

Without looking back, Robin held up a small keypad and pushed a button.

ZZZZZT!

"Yiow!"

Robin smirked. He held out a grappling cord, fired it upwards and was pulled up to the rooftops.

: T : T : T : T :

Beast Boy stood in the blue lit arena, a single bead of sweat on his brow as he prepared himself for the training session. Starfire's voice came through the shield, "Are you prepared, Beast Boy?"

He winced, but gave the thumbs up anyway.

Three humming engines came to life. Beast Boy grit his teeth and crouched low.

From the three "corners" the gun platforms came, ready to blast the living daylights out of the green changeling.

BL-BL-BLAM!

He leapt to his left. The guns followed, continuing to unleash their blasts, barely a foot from his feet. He morphed into a cheetah as he landed and raced to the other side of the dome. He came to a skidding stop and morphed back into an elf.

As they came for him again, he morphed once more, a humming bird this time and flew right between them. The shots stopped immediately as soon as the platforms were in danger of firing at each other.

He buzzed about more as the humming bird, constantly diving between them, so for a second two of them would not be able to shoot at him. This also gave him something of a break because it took the guns a couple of seconds to recalibrate to shoot at him.

Beast Boy morphed into an elf, as he dodged between the platforms for the fifth time. "Dudes, this is too easy!"

He went for another fly through the three platforms. Unfortunately for him, the computer system had adjusted to his tactic. While two went forward, one kept well back, ready to blast the over-confident elf as he flew between the other two.

Beast Boy realized what they were doing a split-second too late.

BLAM!

The electric shocked him out of his bird-form and he dropped to the floor. He looked up to see the three platforms descending on him. "Dudes! Turn them off!" He screamed.

**BL-BL-BLAM!**

: T : T : T : T :

Cyborg sat at the Titans' supercomputer, reading a seemingly endless data stream. Zeroes and ones tumbled by as the computer told him all of the outbound interactions to the Titans communicators. There was nothing out of the ordinary, until the day before when it just hadn't told them about the prison break. The computer didn't give a reason, it just hadn't.

The half-robot had an idea. He checked the previous outbound communication. That was the car-jacking. Nothing out of the ordinary. He typed a few buttons on the keyboard.

Raven's communicator buzzed behind him. She looked up at Cyborg, with one eyebrow raised.

He turned to face her, "Just testing the system, nothing to worry about." He said, and she returned back to her book. "You have your communicator on vibrate?"

A curl of black telekinesis appeared in front of his face and flicked his forehead, hard.

He turned back to the computer, snickering.

: T : T : T : T :

Robin stood on the rooftop, a little way from his bike. He was on the look out… for a certain type of person.

He waited a few more minutes before he saw a couple of people wander into an alleyway across the street. Exactly the sort of person he wanted, in exactly the sort of place he expected to find them.

He took a running jump and landed without a noise in the mouth of the alleyway. He quickly leapt up to a fire escape metal ladder and watched. It was a gloomy place, exactly the sort of place where you would expect to find dodgy deals going on.

And sure enough…

"… and crack. Pretty much anything you want… For a price." Said a thin straggly man chuckled, he had a high pitched nasal whine of a voice. He was pale skinned and had shoulder length greasy, black hair and wore black clothes, as if that made him blend into the darkness around him. Robin smiled. This was _exactly_ what he was looking for. "So, what'll it be."

The man facing the thin guy, was taller and seemed better kept, more healthy. Until you looked at his face. It was gaunt, he had bags under his eyes, which were bloodshot and looked like he hadn't shaved in a week. "Jus' gi' me the ushul, ferret." He said, barely bothering to open his mouth as he spoke.

"Sure thing." 'Ferret' replied. He reached into his coat, to an inside pocket and came out with a paper bag. He passed this to the unkempt man who shoved a handful of notes into his hand. "This should do nicely." He chuckled again.

Just as the two men were about to walk away, Robin leapt over the side of the fire-exit and collided foot first with the skull of the drug addict.

THUD!

"Ferret" stared at Robin in shock.

: T : T : T : T :

Starfire hovered a couple of metres above the ground. I spoke to her through the shield. "_Are you read-"_

"_Nooby, I'm doing it!"_ Beast Boy cut in.

"_But … oh fine." _B.B. whooped. _"Just 'cause I beat you…"_

"_By like a millisecond."_

"_Every little counts!"_

"_Not that little!"_

"I am ready, friends! May we commence?" In response the three hovering guns hummed to life and lifted from the floor. Starfire's eyes became solid green and narrowed.

She shot between two of them before they could even begin firing. They swiftly zipped around and were about to open fire when Starfire semi-charged a couple of starbolts. She fired them in two different directions and flew in a third.

The hovering guns became confused, some of their sensors told them Starfire had gone in three different directions, and some were saying only one.

However, as soon as the starbolts hit the floor, the machines recovered and refocused on Starfire. She did the same thing twice more, before they managed to differentiate between the difference of heat between her and her starbolts.

She still had one trick up her sleeve, however. For the first time the machines opened fire on her, she used her starbolts as a shield catching the shots, and more importantly racking up the valuable seconds.

They did eventually get her, but only after she had ducked, dodged and blocked the shots.

And completely obliterated my and B.B.'s times.

: T : T : T : T :

Robin leapt at "Ferret" gripping him by his loose-fitting jacket and, keeping hold of him, practically threw him into the wall.

He spoke through gritted teeth. "I expect that you're the sort of person who knows what's happening."

"N-n-not really."

Robin pulled him back and thrust him again into the wall. "Then I guess I've wasted my time. I'll just drop you and your friend off at the police station and be on my way then." He started to drag the struggling drug dealer away.

"W-wait! Maybe I _can _help you," then added, half-heartedly, "for a price."

"Funny."

"Okay, okay! For free! What do you want to know?"

"Tell me what you know about the H.I.V.E."

The scrawny drug dealer gulped. He told Robin what he knew, but that wasn't much. He had found out that they were starting a new class project, but no other real details. But that was enough for Robin. He dragged the dealer out of the alleyway into the street.

"You and me are going to the police station."

"But I thought that if I helped you…"

"If you hadn't helped me I would have beaten the living crap out of you, _then _gone to the police station." He narrowed his eyes at Ferret. "Consider yourself lucky that I haven't."

: T : T : T : T :

Cyborg tore open the supercomputers covering. He had found no glitch in the programming, but there had to be _something. _Even if it was a hardware problem. There was nothing wrong with this particular section of the computer.

While he tried to find the problem manually he had the computer run its own checks.

The only trouble was that the computer was integrated with pretty much the entire tower. If something was wrong with almost anything then it might cause a problem in the mainframe.

He kept searching, double checking all of the circuit boards and wires. Just as he was going to get up and manually search the entire tower…

PING!

Cyborg looked up.

On the screen the computer proudly declared it had found alien hardware, attached to the system.

"Oh no they didn't… They did _not hack my computer_!"

He went running down the stairs outside the main room. He went down three flights before he turned off. Then he ran into a maze of corridors, turning left and right before he came to a skidding stop. He was in a room filled with machines with blinking lights. The archive room.

There was nothing here, but old reports of enemies defeated. Nobody ever came here, it was just a dusty old room.

He pressed a few buttons on his arm, which changed shape, scanning for the hardware. He quickly found the right machine, pulled off the covering and there sat a bright yellow piece of device with an H in a hexagon.

"Damn you, Gizmo." He muttered.

: T : T : T : T :

Gizmo scuttled along a corridor in H.I.V.E.'s new secret base. _"Headmaster Blood, take a seat." _He heard in his earpiece. He scampered quickly into a deserted classroom and pushed a button on his wrist, the image of the headmaster's office appeared on a projected screen above his wrist.

He had planted the camera there months ago and still no-one had noticed. He sat in a chair and watched the scene unfold.

_: Brother Blood sat down across the table from a shoulder-length haired agent. He wore glasses and had sleeveless yellow armour. Brother Blood wore his robe over his cybernetic enhancements, only his half metal skull visible._

"_What is it that you want, Murphy?" said Blood._

_Agent Murphy replied, "Just to make sure that you and the board are in harmony over matters."_

_Brother Blood frowned. "What?"_

"_The board wish to be more involved with the choices you make, involving the academy."_

"_They wish to interfere you mean?"_

_Murphy half laughed. "No. Just to be in knowledge of occurrences in the school. If you recall, they barely knew about the previous class project, and knew next to nothing about the Titans' involvement with us."_

"_I-"_

"_They are sure that wasn't deliberate on your part. However, they do wish to be informed of anything out of the ordinary. As such, they are placing me here to act as your deputy."_

"_Deputy?" Brother Blood was visibly angered. "Wasn't it **you **who taught the children while I was away?"_

"_Yes, it was, with a few others. And I know it is not an easy job by yourself. So, I offered my services."_

"_Offered your services."_

"_Indeed."_

_Brother Blood snarled. "Very well. I see I have no choice in the matter."_

"_I'm afraid so." Murphy stood up to leave. "Headmaster, I hope that you can continue to provide an excellent standard of teaching. With my assistance, of course."_

"_Of course."_

_Murphy left the room. Blood sat with his fingers steepled for several minutes.:_

Gizmo shut off the video feed, his equipment would alert him if anything else happened in the heads office.

This was certainly an interesting development…

: T : T : T : T :

Robin stood alone in the training arena. The rest of us had left hours ago. He tossed his belt to one side and set the timer for the shield and hovering guns' activation to 10 seconds. He walked into the middle of the gym. The three guns in a triangle on the floor around him.

The blue shield shot down from the roof and the guns rose to head height, humming like bees. Just as they began firing, Robin dropped to the floor and rolled underneath one of them.

He leapt to his feet on the other side and used the gun as a hand-hold to launch himself over the three guns, so just as they managed to lock onto him he was on the opposite side.

As they turned around he leapt backwards, somersaulting, as the shots hit the floor around him.

The three guns changed tactic and position. They moved so that one was at about hip level, one head level and one a few feet above that. The intention being that one of them would have him in range no matter how he leapt about. They didn't stop firing.

Robin ran at them, strafing slightly, to avoid their shots. He leapt onto the first one, at head height, Before performing a half cartwheel in midair and planting his hand on the one at hip height.

He bent his elbow and pushed, effectively jumping into the air. He caught his foot around the one highest in the air pulled himself up with his knee, launching him into the air again. He landed a few feet away. The guns turned again to face him.

The Boy Wonder grinned.

Robin was in a class of his own.


	12. A Battle of Wits?

"Uh… Raven, are you sure we shouldn't be training?"

Bet you can't guess what happens next. Maybe you're thinking, she drags me into a dark corner of the Tower, declares her demon inside gone and kisses me passionately. Yeah, right. Maybe she declares her demon inside is now outside and only I have the power to hunt it down. Again, why would she ask me, right? So, maybe she declares she _is _her demon inside and she proceeds to make my inside my outside. Maybe that would be preferable. Preferable to getting schooled at chess.

Why me?

: T : T : T : T :

Everybody else was training. I wished I was. But no.

Raven picked me to slaughter at her chosen game. She didn't talk as she took her side of the board.

The others told me this day was coming. I hoped. I feared. I prayed.

But Raven has to prove her supremacy over each of the Titans. Now, it was my turn.

So far, she was undefeated. Robin gave her a run for her money, apparently, a close run game that she managed to win. Cyborg almost came close, but the pressure was too much for him, and he made a silly mistake late in the game. Starfire… Starfire did her best, but having only played a few times, she was still very much an amateur. Beast Boy, well, Beast Boy lost on the fourth move.

Having played a few matches against a simulator, I realised I hadn't a snowballs chance in hell.

So, I decided to cheat. I was going to talk. All the way through her turn. And hopefully, I was going to get on her nerves enough to make her lose her focus.

And I might avoid an embarrassing defeat.

It was a plan worthy of an evil genius.

: T : T : T : T :

"And Tonight's Meta-Brawl Maaaaaaaain Event!" The crowd went wild, baying for blood. Ironic, because the competitor about to be introduced had none. "Introducing first, hailing from MRDR Laboratories! AAAAAAAAAATLAS!" The crowd cheered more insanely as the shining robot strode forward, taking centre stage, arms raised high, basking in the shouts. He was almost entirely gold, except for a few crimson parts, a "helmet", gauntlets, collar and boots. He also had an attached belt, with an A emblazoned on it.

"And his opponent! Hailing from the Pacific! Mistaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar…" The announcer took a gulp of air. "Turtllllllllle!"

A short man shuffled forward. He was hunched over, had short claws on his fingers and toes, a helmet, goggles and, unsurprisingly had a metal shell on his back. His costume was a mixture of greens and silver where the paint had been scratched off. The shell itself had a couple of vents exhaling gases, making the man seem like a cross between a turtle and a factory.

The arena was hexagonal shaped, with vertical shields around the edges to protect the spectators.

DING-DING!

With the bell, both of the competitors moved forward. Atlas was confident, but careful as he seemed to size his diminutive opponent up. Mr. Turtle was tentative and seemed ready to waddle away as fast as his little legs could carry him at the first sign of trouble.

Noticing this, Atlas' old cockiness resurfaced as he spoke. "I must warn you, human. My weapon choice was made solely for facing you." He held up his lift wrist. "The radium-plasma cannon." Without lowering his left wrist, he raised his right one. "The thermal-energy axe, coupled with a steel-capped projectile blaster." He lowered both with an arrogant smirk. "More than enough to deal with you."

"You wish ya "I, Robot" reject!"

"REJECT!" Fumed Atlas, "I'll show you reject!" He levelled his left arm at Mr. Turtle and shot off a plasma blast, with enough recoil to throw his arm up.

FFTCHOOOM!

The villainous turtle flung himself forward, catching the blast on his metal shell, which absorbed the energy into it. "A little energy boost would be appreciated, thank you!" He scurried forward, leapt into the air, and, with an assist in the form of flames spewing out of his backpack, span into a somersault, his shell caught Atlas in his metal chest.

"Oof!" the robot's air was knocked out of him, and he stumbled away. "You will be defeated, little one! I take my fuel from the atmosphere around us! I will never run low!"

"You don't need ta run low for me ta beat ya!"

Out of the sides of his shell, two blasters whirred out. Trying to press his advantage he rapid-fired at the android before him. BL-BL-BL-BLAM!

Atlas caught the shots on his left gauntlet, completely unfazed by the volume of shots pouring out of Mr. Turtles shell. As soon as he realized this, the shelled bad guy stopped firing, frowning.

Atlas ran at him, an energy axe suddenly in his hand. "RAAAAARGH!" he swung it down, Mr Turtle having to dive completely out of the way to avoid having his head cleaved form his shoulders.

The Turtle scurried to the far side of the arena. He pressed a button and a panel opened from his shell. A large gun appeared out of it, glowing brightly. "Hey chump! Remember this?"

FFTCHOOOM!

The same plasma blast that Atlas had fired earlier soared back at him. He raised his massive hands and caught the blast. "Indeed I do." He rotated one arm full circle, still holding the blast, and bowled the blast back at Mr Turtle.

FFTCHOOOM!

The blast caught the villain square in the chest and knocked him against the arena wall, unconscious.

The crowd cheered again, as Atlas raised his arms in triumph. "I am victorious!" He paused, and said, to himself, "And ready to face the Titans once more…"

: T : T : T : T :

Very carefully, I picked up the white pawn, moved it forward two squares and placed it down. I kept my hand on it, carefully thinking about the risks. I sucked air through my teeth as I considered. Just as carefully, I moved the piece back. I picked up the equivalent pawn on the other side of the board and placed it down, with equal care.

Cl-Clink.

I took my hand off it.

There. My first move done.

And now for the second part of my plan. I was gonna talk my ass off.

Just as Raven reached out to pick up a piece, I spoke. "So, chose the black side, huh? Isn't that a bit cliché, you know, you being all dark and mysterious, choosing the black side. You know it's only a colour. Just 'cause people see you as dark doesn't mean you have to play into their stereotypes of you. I mean, it's like the reading, you always read the scary novels, that are like, 3 volumes long. Would it kill you to, I dunno, read a magazine for once. Like one of those ones Starfire has… "Just Girls" is it? I dunno. But then again, I couldn't see you reading one of those. Is that me being a hypocrite? 'Cause I can't see you reading a girls magazine? Is that me forcing a stereotype on you? Maybe what you really want to do is read "Just Girls" but society says you're dark, so you feel you can't." I took a deep breath. During the silence she placed her piece down.

Cl-Clink.

I was quiet as I considered my next move. So far, my plan was going well. If I looked up to Raven's face, I could just about see that vein on her temple beginning to throb.

If I was really annoying, maybe I could win this…

: T : T : T : T :

"So, how do you think friend Void is getting on?"

"I'd give the dawg another 10 minutes."

"The game of chest is extremely harrowing, is it not?"

"Star, it's called chess."

"Apologies. But the pressure is intense in the game. I believe, Cyborg, that the reason you lost was because of such pressure."

"Hahaha! Dude! You totally bombed, look at the video of it. Look, you can see you breaking … just… about … here!"

"It is a pity, that your match was not recorded, Beast Boy. I believe the trouble was that Cyborg couldn't turn the camera on quick enough."

"Dawg, you just got burned by Starfire!"

"Shut up!"

"What is this "burning" you speak of? Is Beast Boy okay? Would you like me to turn the conditioner of hair on?"

"The air con?"

"Indeed."

"Don't worry about it Star, B.B. is fine."

"Glorious!"

"Titans, trouble!"

"What is it Robin?"

"I'm not sure, the police reports are still coming in. Sounds like a group tearing apart the city. Titans, Go!"

: T : T : T : T :

I picked up a white pawn moved it two spaces forward, I didn't let go. I placed it back in it's original position. I reached across to another pawn and pushed it forward. Almost immediately, I pulled it back. My hand travelled back to the original pawn and put it two spaces forward.

"There."

Raven's hand reached out. I started talking again.

"You know, I saw a musical just like this…"

: T : T : T : T :

"Instigator?"

"Yo." The big armour-covered student rumbled.

Brother Blood stopped mid-register. He looked up from his clipboard, into the yellow dome, his training arena. The walls were made up of yellow hexagons, as per H.I.V.E. regulations, and his students were standing around him in a semi-circle. Agent Murphy stood, leaning against the wall behind him, as usual he was wearing his sleeveless yellow body armour.

"Pardon!"

"I mean… Yes, sir."

Brother Blood snarled at the lack of respect shown, and the big teen took an involuntary half-step backwards.

"Good." He continued the register, when he had finished he tossed aside the clipboard and addressed his students. "This is combat class. From what I've seen, you are in dire need of it. Your downfall probably comes from poor preparation. Yes, Mammoth, preparation is needed for fighting. For example, has any of you ever read any books on the topic? Anyone? I thought not. This is why you fail. I have read many books on this. As I'm sure has Mr. Murphy." He acknowledged the H.I.V.E. agent with a nod in his direction.

"Actually, I haven't." The Englishman spoke up.

There was silence.

Brother Blood turned to face the Agent. "Perhaps a demonstration should be in order? A debate, of sorts, on preparation."

"I didn't say I don't prepare. I said I haven't read books on the subject. I have, for example, analysed the way you fight."

Brother Blood raised an eyebrow. "I haven't had the chance to do that with you. Perhaps you would give me the chance now?"

"The purpose being?"

"To show the students how two well-trained but more importantly well-_prepared _warriors fight."

Murphy smiled. "Very well."

The students murmured around them, as they formed a circle, Blood and Murphy in the middle. Brother Blood tore off the robe he used, hiding his mechanical enhancements. With the robe removed his usual black and red body and clothes were revealed. He raised his fists into a combat pose.

Without hesitation, Murphy leapt forward, bringing his foot down where Brother Blood's head was a second before. Now, there was only a hand. Before his other foot tpuched the ground Murphy was thrown backwards, all the force on his foot, which sent him into a backwards somersault.

He planted his hands on the ground, still close to Brother Blood, somehow stopping his momentum. He stayed like that for a second, his legs split in the air, before pushing and crossing his arms. This pushed him into the air and sent him into a spin, his legs aimed at Blood's head. The cyborg took a step backwards to avoid the kicks.

When his hands reached the ground again, Murphy performed the rest of his backflip, righting himself, to face Blood properly.

"Not good enough Murphy, you'll have to do better than this."

Murphy ran forward, and in a flurry of fists tried to beat Blood down. But, almost effortlessly, Blood blocked each and every blow. As Murphy started to sweat from the exertion, Blood gripped a wrist, twisted and tossed the Agent over his hip.

He pulled Murphy into a bear-hug, and whispered into his ear, from behind."Did you know I've never been bested in combat?" He paused. "Even the incident with Cyborg, doesn't really count. That wasn't combat, he hacked my system or something. Even my weeks of being in prison haven't made me weak."

Murphy struggled, straining against the mechanical muscles which held him, to no avail. Finally, he went limp. His head lolled forward and his hair hung in front of his face.

Suddenly, his head flew back, and cracked into Brother Blood's face. His grip loosened and Murphy slid free. He took a step forward, lifted his leg and kicked Blood square in the chest. The cyborg stumbled back from the blow, but managed to keep his balance.

His eyes began to glow red. Murphy's eyes flickered for a second, but the mind control didn't take effect.

"Know your opponent, Headmaster."

Blood fumed and ran forward, his leg scything out to catch Murphy in the skull. The Agent dived out of the way just in time, and rolled to avoid a second kick Blood threw in his direction.

Out of nowhere, a hand flew at Murphy's neck.

And stopped.

Scarce millimetres away from a decapitating blow.

"That will be enough, don't you agree Mr. Murphy." The agent on the floor merely nodded. "So, students. As we have learned, any preparation is enough to give you an advantage in a match. That will be all, dismissed."

The headmaster strode out of the hall, leaving the shocked students staring at the still prone agent on the floor.

: T : T : T : T :

"… and in the end Harry Potter decides not to go back to school next year but to pursue these Horcruxes so he can defeat the evil Lord Voldemort." Raven looked at me, temple vein pulsing. "I thought you might appreciate the Harry Potter books. You know, 'cause they're about witchcraft and stuff."

"Just. Make. Your. Move."

"Coolio."

I reach forward, grasp a knight and move it forward two and then sideways one.

Cl-Clink!

"Your go…" I had to think of something to say… Your go. Your go. Yo-yo! "Hey did you ever play with those yo-yos? I was never much good with them. I mean, I could manage 'Walk the dog' but who couldn't? I could just never…"

: T : T : T : T :

"And so I said to him, 'that's not my wife that's-' HOLY CRAP!"

"Say what? Oh my…"

A robot landed between two men. It was a skeletal construction, wires clearly visible, it was small, about the size of a monkey. It looked like it wouldn't hold up to too much punishment. But it also looked like it could dish it out. It had clawed hands and feet, three talons per limb, and teeth that looked like they would tear through flesh with no problem. Finally, it had a small blaster on top of it's head, like a third eye.

"SSKKKKRRRRRCCCKKK!" it mechanically screeched at the two men.

The two men flew as it chased on all fours after them. All around the mall there were dozens of them, tearing up the place. One of them burst through a window, collided with a CLOSING DOWN SALE sign and entangled itself in the cardboard.

This was a less well known mall of Jump city, but still had its fair share of shoppers. It had two tiers, the higher one was basically just walkways to get to other shops, but the lower one had fountains and cafes as well.

Just as one of the imp-bots was about to connect with a shrieking shoppers head, it was caught mid-air in a blue sonic blast. It was sent fling into a fountain, where it short circuited.

Robin, Cyborg, Starfire and Beast Boy stood in the entrance of the mall, shoppers running towards them in an attempt to get to the exit.

"Hasn't anyone told y- Sorry Ma'am. Hasn't any- Excuse me, sir, but I'm trying to- Oh never mind… Titans Go!"

The Titans leapt forward, but were swamped by the citizens, all heading for the only exit. Right through the Titans.

"Dudes, this building was designed really badly!" Beast Boy called as he morphed into a bird to escape the melee. Next to him, Starfire took to the air too and Robin fired a grappling hook, taking him to the upper tier. Cyborg, however had to wade through the panicked shoppers.

"Yes sir, I know there's some scary robots. If you'll just make your way to the exit with all the others. Yes, you too ma'am. No I don't think we'll be needing any help." He paused, thinking. "Ah, screw this." He pointed an arm in the direction of a balcony.

His hand flew off, it was attached by a long metal rope, and it gripped the edge of the balcony. Cyborg pulled himself up.

Somewhere, someone was watching him. Closely. Scrutinizing his every move.

Analyzing.

Comparing.

Contrasting.

Evaluating.

: T : T : T : T :

Raven was getting close to beating me. Despite my best efforts to annoy her into losing, she was beating me. I could taste it. I could also tell from the girl sat before me. The vein on her forehead still throbbed, but it had lessened. Like she had something to look forward to. She moved her pieces with less certainty now. Analyzing the consequences of where she was going to put the pieces, even as she moved them.

But the biggest reason I could tell?

She had taken quite a few more pieces than me. Too early I had made a silly move and lost my Queen. This gave hers the chance of rampaging across the board. Until I finally managed to stop it with a Knight. Which was then taken by a Bishop.

I was still jabbering in her turn, but she had managed to block it out now. I continued doing it, on the off-chance it might still force her into making a silly mistake.

: T : T : T : T :

WHAM!

Robin kicked a monkey-bot into the roof. As it fell he leapt, kicking it into the ground. Before he could deliver the hat-trick, three of them leapt on him, bringing him crashing to the cold fake marble floor.

FLASH!

Starfire melted the face off of one of the small robots with a starbolt. FL-FLASH! Mid-air, she tried to hit another but it dodged, strafing left and right.

BL-BLAM!

It fired two shots at her, distracting her and before she knew it she had been dragged to the floor.

CRASH!

Beast Boy, in rhino-form, impaled a robot on his horn. He morphed briefly into a swordfish and sliced the robot apart. He morphed into a monkey and leapt to a nearby tree. Unfortunately for him, two of the small robots leapt from the balconies and collided with him in mid-air.

SHOOOM!

Cyborg blasted apart another of the skeletal creations before turning and blasted another that was trying to creep up on him. A third leapt onto his back but he reached behing, gripping it in a titanium fist and crushed its 'ribcage'. "Y'all better watch out! 'Cause you are inferior models!"

"Indeed they are, Cyborg." Cyborg turned to see Atlas standing at the door to the mall. "But they were sufficient to get your attention. And quell your team-mates." Cyborg turned back to see his team-mates swamped by the small robots. He began to power up a shot to hit Atlas with, but during the seconds in which he had been distracted by Atlas a swarm of the skeletal robots had snuck up on him.

Just as he raised his arm to fire…

CL-CL-CL-Cl-CL-CLANG!

The swarm leapt on him, bringing him to the ground.

"Now who is inferior?"

: T : T : T : T :

Behind the chess-game the main-screen showed the battle between the rest of the Titans and Atlas and his robots.

"Check."

Dammit. Not checkmate though. I could still get out of this. If only-

WRIIIIII – WRIIIII – WRIIIIII!

That would do.

Three letters appeared on the main screen. Every titan knew what they meant, it was one of the worst possible notifications. It meant that we had to immediately stop the chess game.

The initials of Titan in Trouble flashed on the screen. It had been implemented for when one of us had been kidnapped.

Only then did we realise the complete absurdity of the automatic initialling of emergency messages.

T.I.T. flashed on the mainscreen.

I smirked. Raven sighed.

But I knew this wasn't over. This was just a delay. The battle would go on…

: T : T : T : T :

Energy rope held Cyborg's limbs together. He was hanging in darkness. There was no way to tell where he was. Darkness all around. Suddenly the energy rope went out, and Cyborg tumbled down.

After a couple of seconds he hit the ground.

He turned on a thermal scanner.

Nothing.

He switched on a flashlight in his arm, but he couldn't make out anything.

Ch-Tunk!

A light shone right in his face. He brought an arm up to protect his human eye.

Ch-Tunk! Ch-Tunk!

Suddenly, the whole place was lit up. It looked like an arena of some sort.

An empty arena.

"You know, only yesterday I was fighting here with two-bit villains, perfecting my combat skills. None of them was a match for me." Atlas walked into view. "I fought for the crowds amusement. But truthfully? I cared nothing for them, nor the money I earned for doing it. I lived for fighting. Knowing that one day soon, I would have my rematch with you. One on one, your friends aren't here to support you. Perfect for my revenge!"

He ran forward, with one fist raised.

Cyborg ducked under the punch, but left a foot behind to trip Atlas.

CRASH!

Atlas tumbled to the ground. He clambered to his feet, but Cyborg was already on him.

CLANG!

Right hook.

CLANG!

Left hook

CL-CLANG!

Two quick-fire punches.

Cyborg walked back, waiting for Atlas to rise to his feet.

"Bravo, Cyborg. Caught me off-guard there, it won't happen again, I assure you!" He raised an arm, which morphed into a gun, remarkably similar to Cyborg's. "Sonic cannon… Like it?"

"Yeah, just so happens, after the whole Brother Blood thing, I upgraded myself. Wanna see my sonic shield?"

A small circle whirred out of Cyborg's arm. It lit up with a blue light before seeming to expand to about two feet in diameter.

"… A shield?"

"Oh yeah!"

"Okay, let's see if it's strong enough!"

"More than strong enough, dawg."

SHHFFF!

Instead of the expected blue sonic discharge, a missile flew from the cannon.

"Would you look at that, I lied." Said Atlas, smugly.

Cyborg ducked underneath the missile and it flew over him. It gradually managed to turn 180 degrees, so it could face Cyborg again.

SHHFFF!

Cyborg sighed. "Thought so." It flew at him again.

He raised his sonic shield to head height and tilted it. The missile half-connected with shield, sending it into a spin toward Atlas. The robot's eyes widened as the rocket flew towards his face. At the last second he ducked and the missile flew over him…

…and turned round to face Cyborg again.

"Ah, to hell with it!"

He crouched low, placed his arm so that the shield was between him and the rocket and braced himself. The rocket flew towards him as Atlas laughed.

**BOOM!**

: T : T : T : T :

Raven and I landed in the mall. Debris was scattered around, Birdarangs were sticking out of walls and floors and there were circles of melted marble. There was no sign of any of the Titans, nor were there any of the robots that had been reported.

Raven walked forward to a particular crack on the floor near the door. "Hmm…"

I flew forward. "What?"

"Nothing, why?"

"You said 'hmm'!"

"So?"

"Is that a good hmm or a bad one?"

"Neither. It was just a hmm."

"Hmm…"

Raven sighed.

"I'll activate the tracking system, but I doubt Atlas would be so stupid as to leave them on." As Raven spoke she took out a tracking device from somewhere in her cloak.

Bleep.

"I guess that he is that stupid."

: T : T : T : T :

Robin, Starfire and Beast Boy sat in orange spheres in a filthy locker room.

"I despise the orbs of orange. There is no escape."

"Dude, we all hate them."

"The way in which they have been made means that while it is practically impregnable from the inside, they are vulnerable from the outside."

"Yeah, but Robin, none of us are outside." Beast Boy sagged visibly.

"But I am."

I landed next to the orange spheres.

"Void! Where's Raven?"

"She's gone for the other signal." I looked at the three Titans before me. "Which presumably is Cyborg."

"Okay we need to get out of these as fast as possible!"

"Way ahead of you."

**PHVIISH!**

: T : T : T : T :

"I pity you, Cyborg. That you are a half-breed, and you have all of the weaknesses of both, without either's strengths. The vulnerability of a computer to hacking, but without the ability to fully upgrade. And the disgusting human heart, with it's feelings without… oh yes, of course, you meat bags have no strengths!"

SMACK!

He kicked Cyborg in the stomach, rolling him onto his back. He placed a giant red foot onto Cyborg's stomach. He began to press down, crushing Cyborg's abdomen.

"What do you have to say now, Bigshot? You only beat me last time through luck. You think defeating me once out of three times makes you win! You are Nothing! HEAR ME! NOTHING!"

Through his rage, Atlas rained down blows on the prone Cyborg, without really seeing what he was hitting.

SHOOOM!

Atlas was sent flying into the air by a sonic blast and landed a few metres away, his chest smoking. Cyborg stood, holding his sonic shield between him and Atlas.

"Dawg, you gotta pay attention when you're fighting. Remember what I said about the strength of this baby?"

"Hah! You are the one who needs to pay attention 'dog'!" A plasma blast from behind knocked Cyborg forward, to the ground once more.

Another Atlas strode from the direction of the blast.

"Time to die, homo-sapien."

"So you have to gang up on me? Is that the only way the great Atlas can beat me?"

"**SILENCE!"** Both Atlas' shouted at once. Snarling they both raised their weapons aimed at Cyborg. "Think you can block both shots at the same time?"

SHHFFF! FFTCHOOM!

The plasma blast and missile were fired at the same time towards the prone Cyborg.

Suddenly, a black raven appeared in the middle of the room, before Raven's soul-self withdrew into her body and Raven herself was left levitating in the centre of the room, eyes glowing grey.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

A semi-globe of darkness erected itself around Cyborg.

**BOOOOOM!**

The two shots exploded, sending up enough smoke to fill the entire arena, making it practically impossible to see. Raven sank directly down, to where she knew Cyborg was. She made the telekinetic shield disappear and landed lightly next to the half-robot.

"Thanks Rae."

SSSHHH.

The ventilation had been turned on, and the smoke was pouring out. As the smoke cleared Cyborg and Raven could see there was no fewer than four more Atlas' copies now standing around them.

"Now you will feel the full wrath of the great Atlas!"

"Nothing can defeat one, let alone six!"

"You face undefeatable odds!"

"You are nothing compared to Atlas!"

"Atlas is invincible!"

"Prepare for extermination!"

The Atlas' stood, heckling the two Titans, as if shouting alone would defeat them.

Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "Wait a sec, isn't that a line from 'Transformers the movie'?"

"**NO!"**

"Geez, okay." He turned to Raven. "We need a plan."

"Remember Trident?"

Cyborg chuckled. "Worth a shot, for sure." He turned to face as many of the Atlas' at once. "Hey! If you are the ultimate warrior, then one of you must be the best!"

"Wrong, half-breed. We are all equal!"

"But someone must be more equal! Like you, you're the most talkative Atlas, do you consider yourself the leader?"

"Well, I am the original."

One of the other Atlas' piped up, in anger. "No you're not!"

"Of course I am."

"We demand proof!"

The 'first' Atlas procured a document out of nowhere. "Here it says: 'Built in MRDR labs.' Followed by the date '13/01/04', which I think you'll find is a year and ¾ before any of you were built!"

The other Atlas' checked. The original Atlas was right. The other five Atlas' looked at each other.

THUNK.

A claw attached to a wire, fired from one of the Atlas' was connected with the original's chest. "Huh?"

BZZZT!

Electricity arced along the wire, short-circuiting the original Atlas.

"Traitors… Betr…" Halfway through a word he fell backwards, stiff as a plank.

THUD!

Cyborg and Raven looked at each other. "Well, it sorta worked." Said Cyborg.

The remaining Atlas' tossed the original away from them and began to confer. Behind them one of the force-shield 'walls' began to flicker and then died. From the darkness beyond where the 'wall' had been a spinning object flew and landed directly in the middle of the discussing Atlas'.

"What is that?" One of them pointed.

Another bent low to look at it. "Well, it appears to be-"

BOOM!

Three of the Atlas' were sent flying in different directions, scratched but relatively unscathed. The remaining two were also sent flying, but one was minus a head and the other minus most of one arm.

The four Atlas' who were 'alive', climbed to their feet. The three intact ones spotted the one without an arm and their eyes widened.

"**Imperfect!"**

BL-BL-BLAM!

FFFTCHOOOM!

RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT!

The Atlas was engulfed by the three different weapons, and when the shots stopped and the smoke cleared, he was little more than a pile of melted and dented parts.

The three left, panted from their exertions and failed to notice three Titans creep up behind them.

CRUNCH!

One was pierced where his heart would be by Beast boy's rhino horn.

FLASH! PHVIISH!

The other two tried to warn each other of the Titans behind them, but acted too late and found Starfire and me starbolt and void-blade them respectively. Both fell headless to the floor, Starfire's Atlas due to having his head melted, and mine because it's head fell next to it.

Robin strode into the centre of the arena, checking each of the Atlas' in turn. "Mission accomplished, Titans. We have one who is intact but pit of commission." He pointed at the original Atlas, who could be rebooted for information.

Raven turned to me, I tried to escape her gaze, but failed miserably. "You have a chess game to lose."

Dammit!

: T : T : T : T :

Atlas was rebooted, chained and put in a cell with the remains of his monkey-robot gang. He had refused to give any information, as expected, and now he sat in his room.

SSKRRRCHHH!

"Of course we won't be in here long! We are one of MRDR's finest creations!"

SKRCCCHHH!

"No, I can't do anything about the light. If the red bothers you then alter you settings."

SKRCH?

"Oh, shut up!"

: T : T : T : T :

Raven and I continued our chess game, and sure enough in a few moves I did lose it. But looking on the bright side, I did better than Beast Boy and Starfire.


	13. A Secret Kidnap I

Beast Boy told me that a while back Robin became the Red X, before that he was Slade's apprentice. Both times he did this with good intentions, but without telling the team. In both situations, the rest of the team thankfully found out, and the day was saved. But it leaves me wondering, what would have happened to him if nobody had found out he was Red X? But I know what happened because he didn't tell the Titans, their trust in him faltered.

: T : T : T : T :

A balding, grey-haired, white-coated scientist was sat at a workbench; he occasionally poked or prodded the robotic arm in front of him with a soldering iron. Every now and then he glanced at a computer screen to his right. Occasionally he muttered to himself. To look at him you would presume he was a scientist, glasses, messed up hair and a shirt and tie combo that didn't seem quite… right.

Another white-coat walked past him. "Hey, Simmons. Got that robotic arm working yet?"

"Hell no!" Answered 'Simmons', "I think I'm missing a bit."

"Best send it back to the retailer."

Simmons laughed. "Don't you have your own work to be getting on with?"

"It's home-time. You should check your watch once in a while."

Simmons looked at his watch and sighed. "Looks like another all-nighter."

The scientist laughed. "Goodnight Simmons."

"Goodnight."

The white-coat walked out of the room. Simmons leaned back, stretching his back. Nobody else was still working in the pristine white lab. A dozen identical work benches, and his was the only one occupied. He sighed again and went back to prodding his robotic arm.

"Another weekend working."

: T : T : T : T :

"Woohoo! Weekend holiday!"

Robin sighed. Rubbed a hand over his eye-mask. "Get off the table Beast Boy." Beast Boy clambered off the table and returned to sit between Starfire and Cyborg. "And the holiday is cancelled as soon as anything serious comes up."

"So really we just get a weekend off paperwork?" Cyborg asked.

Robin nodded.

"Aww man! That's no holiday." B.B. pouted.

"Yeah and he doesn't do his paperwork anyway!" I said.

"Nooby, I so do!"

"Yeah? Like when?"

"I… Uh… Like…"

"Exactly."

Robin interrupted the changeling's retort as he said. "Plus you don't have to train."

"Score!" said Beast Boy.

"…" said Robin.

"Get off the table, right?"

"And stop dancing."

: T : T : T : T :

Sometime later. In the Main Room.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Raven spoke monotonously, without looking up from her book, which she seemed to have to read like Beast Boy had to eat. A lot.

Robin replied as he sat across the table from her. "Me and you can deal with anything minor, right?"

"Of course."

"Then what could go wrong?"

"Something major."

: T : T : T : T :

Brother Blood walked down the yellow corridors of the H.I.V.E. base. As usual, after the Titans repeated break-ins of previous bases, cameras followed his progress. This in itself was not suspicious, but Brother Blood knew that only one of the cameras of each corridor needed to follow him to fulfil the security requirements. Most of them followed him, and he knew that this was Murphy's doing.

Gizmo scuttled alongside him, in his usual green with controller on the front and mechanical pack on his back.

"They're watching you, boss."

"I am well aware of that, Gizmo." Said the cyborg and as Gizmo broke into a series of childish swearing he added. "Be quiet."

After a few more turns down the H.I.V.E. corridors and dozens more cameras the duo came to the headmaster's office. Brother Blood put his hand to a panel, which scanned his electrical signal, and the door slid open.

Gizmo ran as fast as his legs cold carry him, to the one camera in the room, which was on the wall beside the door, and plugged a memory device into a socket. Of course, he still had his camera hidden in the room, which could be used for blackmail later.

He pushed a button on the memory device, and a pre-recorded conversation, between Blood and Gizmo, played on whatever screen the camera was connected to. Gizmo then proceeded to sweep the room for listening bugs, other than his own, and finding one, he destroyed it.

"Now we know there is no chance of being eavesdropped on, how is your… assigned project going?" Said Brother Blood.

Gizmo blushed and eventually replied. "Hate to say it boss, but _shweeze _what you're asking for, when you're asking for it… My intellect alone just ain't enough. Maybe if I had some fly-sucking assistant, but its impossible by myself."

"Assistant? No. Partner? Perhaps." He pressed a button on his desk and a small screen rose silently out of the wood. He pushed some buttons that rose on a keyboard with the screen and a few seconds later, the mask of the Ravager appeared on screen.

"Oh not that skuzzball. He's not a scientist, he's a jobber!"

"I am well aware of that Gizmo. Now **be quiet**." Blood's human eye and both Gizmo's eyes took on a brief shade of red and his mouth closed suddenly. "Ravager, I have a job for you. The details will be sent to you shortly, along with money. One of my students will also be with you for experience and to ensure everything runs smoothly."

The Ravager nodded. "I will not fail."

"You had better not." Ravager's eyes narrowed, seconds before the comm. link between them broke off. Brother Blood turned to Gizmo. "Fetch Gemini."

: T : T : T : T :

Beast Boy and I strolled through the city park, enjoying the sunshine before nightfall. The changeling beside me was on the look-out for girls and was basically giving me a running commentary on everything that was happening. "Dude, I love Saturdays! Look at all the chicks! Hey, I reckon that one's giving me the eye, what do you reckon, Void?" Amazed that he had called me by my actual alias I was speechless, B.B. didn't seem to notice. He also didn't notice that the girl in question was staring, but seemed more interested in the fact that between us were green and wearing a full-body, skin-tight… thing. "Yup, I'm a babe-magnet aren't I?"

Half of me wished that I had accepted Star's offer to go to the mall, or Cyborg's offer to do some work on the T-car. But I was fairly useless at both of those activities. So there I was as B.B. decided to give me his 'great' tips on how to seduce the ladies.

"First, you gotta be cute. Now, as you can see, I've got number one _down_! As for you… well… with the mask and all… its hard to tell. Aaaaaanyway, the rules! Rule no. 3-"

"What happened to rule 2?"

"What?"

"You skipped no. 2 out."

"No need to be pedantic! Fine… Rule no." He gave me a look. "**2**. Smooth talking! Now as I bet you can tell, I am as smooth as an oiled up seal." He turned into a seal, to prove his point, and then changed back. "ARF! Ahem. I mean metaphorically of course."

"Of course."

"Now rule no. 3!" I phased out. Maybe I should have gone to the mall with Starfire. Or offered to help Robin and Raven do the protection of the city with them. Better than whatever Beast Boy was talking about. I listened for a couple of seconds. "The Freeze tongue is one of my greatest-" I phased out immediately.

My mind wandered for a while. Just as my mind drifted onto the subject of S.T.A.R. labs Beast Boy abruptly stopped talking about whatever needed such throwing gestures. I had no idea what caused it but he suddenly seemed pensive.

I wracked my brains, trying to think of what he was talking about before he so suddenly stopped. Something about a fair? A coconut stall. And then he said the best place for romantic moments was at the top of a big wheel before he trailed off.

Strange.

: T : T : T : T :

Back at the Tower, in the garage Cyborg was cheerfully shining the T-Car, whistling.

Raven was in the Main Room, reading some book about vampires… or vampyrs.

Robin was in the gym, training. Kicking the hell out of a punchbag.

At the mall, Starfire was shopping, already she had 2 bags full of pink things.

Everybody was doing what they enjoyed. Well, I presume Robin enjoyed training.

: T : T : T : T :

A security camera whirred as it turned on it's fulcrum, surveying the entire parking lot. There were very few cars left, and the only thing that could be made out beyond the chain linked fence was a sign with 'S.T.A.R Labs Parking Only' written on it. From behind a car, there almost seemed to be a blur of movement, before the camera displayed only static.

The Ravager jogged forward, pulling the knife which had severed the cameras cables out of the wall. He quickly taped the severed cables together and the camera started filming the view of the car park again.

In the security booth, the security guard stopped bashing the television which had been showing static, as it began functioning normally again.

Back outside, the Ravager headed towards the entrance. As he reached the big metal door he moved towards the scanner for key cards. With a bit of work he managed to remove the plastic casing and studied the electronics for a second. He pulled two wires out and rubbed the metal ends together for a second. The door slid open. He replaced the wires and the casing and headed inside.

Once he was there he avoided the badly placed camera and tore a grate off the wall. He crawled inside the vent and pulled the grate back on after him.

He pulled a small device out of his pocket and started to follow the map on the screen.

: T : T : T : T :

Simmons beavered away at his desktop computer, typing at the speed of light. Numbers and letters appeared on the screen in their dozens before disappearing almost immediately off the top of the screen.

Simmons paused. "Well that makes sense, this capacitor seems to be missing." His finger moved to the print button.

The screen turned off, the lights went out and the robotic hand drooped. From the window, the moonlight reflected off every shiny surface. Simmons swore.

: T : T : T : T :

On the basement level, a fuse dropped to the floor in the gloom. The Ravager walked over to stand behind the door, he pulled out a pistol and loaded it.

A minute passed.

Just as the Ravager was about to move a beam of light from a torch was shone down the stairs. He raised the pistol.

Carefully, the security guard walked down the steps, shining the light at each step in turn. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he walked to the fuse-box, opposite the doorway.

PFFT!

His hand flew to his neck, and he dropped to the floor. The torch fell after him.

SMASH!

The light was extinguished.

The Ravager smiled and made his way up the basement steps.

: T : T : T : T :

Simmons had a small torch out and was just about to insert a small cylinder into the robotic arm. He felt a cold piece of metal touch his throat.

He gulped.

The Ravager stood with his sword across the scientist's throat. "Professor Simmons?"

"Mmm hmm?" With his eyes wide, Simmons looked almost like a rabbit caught in headlights.

"Get up, Professor."

: T : T : T : T :

The security guard lay in the basement, but groggily returned to consciousness. His hand, still at his neck, reached for the dart which contained the fluid which had knocked him out. He pulled the dart out of his neck and untangled it from the material of his collar. The material was slightly damp, as the dart had failed to enter his neck properly, and had instead spent much of it's payload into his collar.

He tugged a radio out of his pocket and started shouting at the person on the other end.

: T : T : T : T :

Raven looked up from her reading. Robin was pacing the room muttering to himself. She watched him for a few laps around the room.

"You're actually counting on something big happening this weekend, aren't you?" She said.

Robin stopped, looked at the dark sorceress and gave the merest hint of a smile before he replied. "Why would I want something like that to happen?"

"Well lets look at the facts: Brother Blood has just escaped from prison," Robin nodded, "You are working yourself into the ground trying to figure out why," Robin looked at the journey around the room he had been making, and nodded, "and you give the entire team a couple of days off? That doesn't really make sense."

"It doesn't need to make sense to you."

"Oh, I didn't say it didn't make sense to me. I meant to the others. _I_ know exactly why you're doing this."

"Do you now?"

WRIIIIIIIIII!

The Boy Wonder grinned as the Titan alarm went off. The duo jogged towards the lift.

Raven looked at the smile for a second then said, "I want you to know something." Robin looked back at her. "I'm not going to get myself beaten up for some lesson that you're trying to teach the others."

: T : T : T : T :

The Ravager picked up Simmons by the scruff of his neck and started to drag him towards the elevator. Just as he was about to move too far from the robotic arm, Simmons reached full length and picked up his work.

He reached the door and placed Simmons on the floor. The scientist, not a particularly short man, had to look up to see the Ravager's face.

He piped up. "Y-you do know… the elevator won't w-work. The electricity's off." He cringed away from the blow he expected.

The Ravager just smiled. "I know." He stabbed his sword into the doors and prised them apart. He unclipped something from his belt, something with wheels on and clipped it to the wire descending into the darkness of the lift chute. He picked Simmons up by his waist and clipped his belt onto the device and dropped the professor.

He hung there, in the darkness, scared out of his life. "C-C-Couldn't we just t-take the st-stairs?"

"Too slow." But just as he reached for the device on the wire the sword on his back was covered in darkness.

The Ravager frowned when he couldn't move forward, he looked back. He saw his sword covered in black. One of the eye-holes grew bigger as he raised an eyebrow.

He flew backwards, dragged by his sword, his metal-laced heels raising sparks on the floor.

SCRRRRR-WHAM!

He collided with a wall.

Raven stood, eyes glowing grey, palm outstretched. "You again." She droned monotonously. Her hand went into a grip and her arm flew upwards. His eyes widened in surprise as his sword flew from its scabbard and shot into the wall next to the lift.

His eyes narrowed as he stood. "I don't _need_ that…" He ran leapt forwards, bringing his foot in the direction of Raven's head.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flying object.

BOOM!

The explosive connected with his side and sent him to the floor where he slid into a desk.

Robin walked forward, just out of reach if the villain chose to attack. "So you're the Ravager? You may have managed to outwit Cyborg and Void, but you'll have a harder job with us." He pulled out his retractable bo-staff, extending it.

"We'll see." He leapt to his feet and ran at the Boy Wonder.

CRACK!

Robin caught a kick with his staff, span it and brought it crashing towards the villains head.

Ravager bent backwards to dodge, his arms reached over his head and he bridged his back.

Robin lashed out with a foot, knocking his opponents legs out, which brought him to the floor on his back. The Boy Wonder leapt into the air, trying to hit a knockout blow on the floored villain, but the Ravager rolled out of the way, and with a spin took out Robin's legs.

The Ravager continued his spin, bringing him back to his feet. Robin brought his feet up and flipped himself back to standing.

The two opponents just stood for a second, staring each other down.

In the seconds of silence, Simmons spoke up. "Ex-Excuse m-me, sorry to interrupt, but T-Titans, don't suppose you could-"

CRUNCH!

A telekinetically flung computer collided with the Ravager's face and he was sent flying across the room, hitting the wall hard. He looked up and saw his sword. He reached up, pulled himself to his feet then slid it from the wall.

A black-encased computer screen flew towards him.

SLASH!

He cut it in half and the two pieces collided with the wall behind him.

He pulled out an explosives trigger from his belt. "Hey, Robin! I think I just outwitted you."

Robin looked to where the Ravager had been leaning against a desk, he caught the briefest of glances of an explosive before-

**BOOOM!**

Raven and Robin were sent flying into desks, crashing through them to the floor.

In the aftermath of the explosion the Ravager leapt into the lift shaft, holding on to the device and pushing a button, he and Professor Simmons dropped into the darkness.

ZZZZZIIIPPPPPP!

"AAAAAAGGGGHHHH!" echoed back up the shaft.

_**To be continued…**_


	14. A Secret Kidnap II Final

_**Previously:** The Ravager's mask appeared on-screen. "I have a job for you." Brother Blood spoke as Gizmo stood behind him, strangely quiet._

**_:T:_**

_A dark laboratory, a scientist sat at his desk, torch in one hand, cylindrical object about to be placed into a robotic arm in the other. A long sword slides into position at his neck. Along the sword is a hand, then an arm, then a body, at the top of the body is the Ravager's head. "Get up, Professor."_

_**:T:**_

_The Ravager stood, his sword in his right hand and a bomb trigger in his left. Facing off against him were both Robin and Raven. "Hey Robin! I think I just outwitted you." He pushed the bomb trigger._

_**BOOOM!**_

: T : T : T : T :

Cyborg looked up from polishing the T-car. In the garage, there was a similar version of the main screen up in the main room. It displayed exactly what was on it's counterpart, for when Cyborg was, like today, doing things with the T-car and something important came up.

Currently it was displaying that there was a break in at S.T.A.R. labs. He shivered and went back to polishing, but his mind was now elsewhere.

Maybe it was just the memories, but he had a bad feeling.

Suddenly, the information on the screen changed. Where before it had read

OFFENDER: UNKNOWN.

CRIME: BREAKING AND ENTERING.

It now changed to

OFFENDER: THE RAVAGER.

CRIME: KIDNAP- SIMMONS, Pr. JAMES.

This double change made him feel much worse. He reached for his communicator.

"Robin? Raven? This is Cyborg."

: T : T : T : T :

The Ravager's plan was going well. He had downed two of the Titans and escaped with the Target. His only regret had been that he hadn't had time to finish off the two heroes. But he had a schedule to keep, and it was important that he wasn't late to the drop off point, for the most vital part of the plan, actually escaping with the Target.

He had the scientist flung over his shoulder, and was making his way through the corridors, to the car-park exit, where he had arrived. He made no effort to dodge the cameras, the element of surprise had been lost, and the only way he would be able to make it to the drop-off was to be quick.

Plus if he took too long then the rest of the Titans would inevitably show up. So, he ran. He kicked down the door to the car-park and took a look around. He jogged to the car he had placed earlier, just outside the car-park, opened the door and threw the scientist onto the back-seat.

The kidnapped man started to talk again. "Wh-where are y-you take-" The Ravager slammed the door and got into the driver's seat. He pulled out the pistol he had used against the security guard earlier, aimed and fired a shot into the scientist's chest.

PFFT!

He slumped in his seat, but the robotic arm was still grasped in his hand.

The Ravager started the car's engine.

VRRRM!

: T : T : T : T :

Robin climbed to his feet, shifting the table, which was partially covering him. His face was slightly blackened by the blast and his body must have been bruised, but he didn't show it.

"Raven?" He called.

In a nearby heap of rubble there was a sort of explosion, darkness throwing bits and pieces in every direction. Raven stepped daintily out of the wreckage, without a scratch on her.

Robin raised any eyebrow at this. "I said, I wouldn't let _myself_ get beaten up for your lesson, I'm quite happy for _you_ to." She replied to his unspoken question.

"Thanks." He said sarcastically.

"In all honesty, it was a reflex."

"Whatever. Come on, we need to catch up with him."

They went to the window, where they saw a dark car drive away, a little over the speed limit. Robin opened the window, leapt out, landed in a tree a couple of metres away. He jumped out of that onto the street.

Raven floated down and landed beside him.

The T-car pulled up beside them and the doors opened. "Need a lift?" Cyborg called from the driver's seat.

The two Titans got in, Raven in the front Robin in the back. "How come I have to be in the back?"

"Because I always sit in the front."

"But-"

"_Always._"

"Fine. Can we track him?"

Raven closed her eyes, and folded her legs beneath her. "I can try… Azarath Metrion Zinthos… Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"

Robin muttered in the back. "I'm the _leader_. I should be in the front. I knew I should have brought the R-Cycle…"

: T : T : T : T :

Beast Boy and I had agreed to meet Starfire in a restaurant down town.

"How was your date?"

Me and Beast Boy were momentarily speechless.

"**It was not a date!" **we both shouted simultaneously.

"Eww."

"Gross."

"Like never in a million years!"

"Even if I was that way inclined!"

I looked at Beast Boy. "Hey! I'll have you know I'm quite a catch!"

"Sure you are nooby!"

Starfire blinked. "Oh."

Bleep. Bleep. Bleep.

All of our communicators went off.

Beast Boy sighed. "Aww man! Not even half the weekend off."

: T : T : T : T :

A dark blue car came to a screeching stop just outside the park of the city. A door opened and the Ravager climbed out. He walked to the back doors, opened one and pulled a man in a white coat out.

He slung him once more onto a shoulder and made his way to the park gates. A sturdy pad-lock and chain held the two large metal gates together. The Ravager reached for his sword.

SLINK!

The two halves of the padlock fell to the floor along with the chain. The villain pushed open the gate and jogged into the park. He took a moment to gather himself, squinting through the darkness to find a direction before he changed his direction slightly and went down a concreted path through the grass.

Soon he reached a statue, of an old mayor, which was built in the middle of the park. He dumped the scientist on a nearby bench and placed an electronic beacon down. This would lead the H.I.V.E. agent to the position… as well as the Titans…

He held his sword before him and put on s apir of night-vision goggles, with luck he would see them coming.

: T : T : T : T :

Cyborg drove when the map of the city on the dashboard gained a flashing dot, in the middle of the city park. He pushed a few buttons, while keeping one eye on the road ahead of him.

"Rae, is this guy in the park?"

Raven frowned. "Now you mention it, he has stopped moving. Could be he's in the park."

"I'll take that as a probably. Robin?"

"Sure, go for it."

Cyborg put his foot down and the T-Car flew down the near empty streets, towards the city park.

Robin got out his communicator. "Starfire? Head towards the park."

Starfires face appeared on the screen. "_Affirmative, Robin. We are relatively close."_

"Be careful, Star."

"_And you, Robin. Starfire out."_

Robin looked down at the communicator, which now showed the two groups of Titans positions in relation to the park. The group with Starfire in was a good distance closer. "Cyborg? Can this thing go any faster?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

**VRRRRM!**

The T-Car sped through the silent dark streets, almost a blur. The engine echoed ahead, even faster.

: T : T : T : T :

_Vrrrm!_

The Ravager looked in the direction of the noise. The echo of a car engine coming from quite nearby.

FLASH! FLASH!

Two starbolts connected with his back and he was flung forward. Starfire flew into view, flanked by myself and B.B. in falcon form.

"Prepare to be defeated evil-doer!"

The Ravager tore off the goggles in anger.

"Raaargh!" He ran forward, with his sword raised.

He threw a small object up at us. We scattered.

BOOM!

A fireball appeared as the object exploded.

: T : T : T : T :

Robin saw the fireball in the sky, and knew that the others had reached the kidnapper. He snarled, opened the sun roof and climbed onto the top of the T-Car.

: T : T : T : T :

The Ravager followed me with his eyes as I traveled through the sky. I flew past the statue, and deciding I was safe enough stopped mid-air, searching round for the captured man.

Unfortunately, the captor had different ideas. He sheathed his sword, ran towards the statue, jumped onto a bench, then onto the statue itself and finally with amazing dexterity leapt from the statue at me.

Too late I tried to move and his hands reached me, pulling me to the ground.

We twisted in the air, and I ended up being at the bottom.

THUD!

I landed on my back, with the Ravager snarling down at me, I had a huge pain in my back, but that was taken away as he started beating my front.

WHAM! WHAM!

I tried to block, by bringing my arms in front of my face, but he continued his barrage regardless.

THUCK!

Suddenly the punching ceased and the weight was lifted from my body.

A little way away, Beast Boy and Ravager were untangling themselves. The villain got to his feet first, but just as he was about to beat down on the elf, Starfire punched him hard in the chest.

THWACK!

He flew back a couple of metres, but managed to land on his feet.

Starfire flew forward again and tried to punch, but he ducked and managed to dodge it. As he straightened he managed an uppercut.

WHAM!

Starfire was knocked out of flying by the blow to her chin. She landed unsteadily on her feet.

WHAM!

He punched her in the gut and she doubled over. He joined his fists together, and clubbed her back, dropping her to the floor.

He reached back, gripping the hilt of his sword, and unsheathed it.

SLIIINK!

He raised it for the decapitating blow.

: T : T : T : T :

Robin rode the top of the T-Car, even as they crashed through the park gates, skidded down a grass bank, until the fight was in sight. He saw the Ravager unsheathe his sword and raise it above his head.

Robin called down to Cyborg. "_Brake_!"

: T : T : T : T :

Just as the Ravager was about to bring the sword down on the alien girl's neck he was lit up by car headlights.

He looked up.

He saw a silhouette soar through the air at him.

The silhouette became a yelling Boy Wonder.

WHAM!

Robin collided with Ravager.

The both slid on the floor for a second, before they both leapt to their feet.

Ravager twirled his sword, slicing through the air. Robin reached to his utility belt and pulled out a bo-staff and extended it.

They ran forwards, Robin swung his bo-staff twice, loosening his opponents grip on his sword. Using his staff, Robin lashed out with a kick which sent the sword out of the Ravager's hands altogether.

The Ravager punched hard into the chest of the Boy Wonder, and then punched again to make him drop his staff.

They both leapt back.

SHOOOM!

A sonic blast knock the Ravager off his feet, and he crawled away to hide behind a tree.

"Too many of them… Every time I get one down, another pops up!" He muttered to himself.

: T : T : T : T :

A yellow and black hovercraft was making it's way to the drop-point. Piloted by a single H.I.V.E. agent who was wearing the usual yellow body armour. Through the windscreen, he could see the battle raging in the park. Green orbs, birdarangs and sonic blasts were being thrown one way, and the other were the occasional fire-bomb, stopping the Titans from advancing.

The H.I.V.E. agent pressed a few buttons on the console in front of him and his one laser turret began to power up.

SHOOM!

He unleashed the blast, not hitting any of the Titans, but hit the ground around them with enough force to knock them off their feet.

The Ravager ran towards the scientist, still on the bench, unconscious, on the way he grabbed his sword from the ground. He picked the man up and leapt into the hovercraft, which had moved closer to him and the ground.

"Mission Accomplished?" The pilot called into the holding area of the craft, which was about the size of an average room.

The Ravager looked into the cockpit and relied, "Almost. Drop the robot on them."

"Affirmative!"

: T : T : T : T :

We all stood up, and watched as the hovercraft swept over us again, almost silently.

"Titans! Bring that thing down!" Shouted Robin.

But before any of us could move, a compartment opened in the bottom of the hovercraft and one of the yellow android Cyborg-replicas dropped out at us.

"Dammit, I hate these things!" Shouted Cyborg as he ran forwards to attack his clone. "Everyone else, just go! I've got this rust-bucket."

He swung a fist to punch it, but the clone blocked with a forearm, which became dented and started to spark. It swung it's own fist, punching Cyborg in the gut.

It held it's fist up, which was also slightly broken now. It looked at Cyborg's belly armour, which was barely scratched. It almost seemed puzzled.

"I guess they used inferior metal, huh?"

: T : T : T : T :

Meanwhile, above the mechanicals' fight…

Robin had fired a grappling hook and pulled himself up to the hovercraft. He climbed into the hold and met the Ravager. A brief exchange of blows followed, which the Ravager got the better of.

WHAM!

The Boy Wonder was sent back to earth.

The rest of us spread out around the hovercraft. Starfire threw starbolts at the Ravager in the hold, while Beast Boy flew around the windscreen, distracting the pilot. I, meanwhile, flew around the other side of the craft.

PHVIISH!

The black-hole/cutting disks appeared on my wrists. I started to cut at the armour of the craft.

: T : T : T : T :

Robin fell from the hovercraft and landed next to Cyborg. Cyborg looked at the Boy Wonder with amusement in his eyes. "Shut up, and just finish this thing."

"Sure thing, oh mighty leader." Cyborg moved to it's left and Robin went to it's right. Cyborg delivered a right hook to his counter-parts face, partially crushing it.

"I believe I said shut up?" Robin kicked a knee, which caused it to start sparking and the automaton tumbled down to a knee.

"Shutting up, sir."

Together, the leader and number one stepped back and threw an explosive birdarang and fired a sonic blast.

There wasn't much left, but what little there was tumbled to the ground.

: T : T : T : T :

BOOM!

Starfire was sent tumbling through the air by the force of a fire-bomb, but managed to stay floating.

FL-FLASH!

The Ravager was caught by one of the starbolts, and fell, disappearing back into the hold of the craft.

PHVIISH!

Another chunk of metal fell from the hovercraft. I was getting somewhere by cutting through the other side, there could only be a little left before I cut through to the hold.

Beast Boy morphed into a hippo briefly which tilted the hovercraft with his weight, before he turned back into an elf. The pilot had tried to alter the flight of the craft, to stop it plummeting, so the things' nose rose into the air.

Inside the raft the Ravager's face was first smashed into the front side of the hold, then the back.

With blood streaming down his nose he snarled. He climbed out of the craft, onto the roof to deal with the changeling. Behind him, the hold doors shut.

Starfire saw us, and she had a moment of indecision, but when she saw the Ravager was creeping up on a completely unaware B.B. the decision was made for her.

FLASH!

The starbolt missed, but alerted the Ravager to her presence, as well as Beast Boy to his. The villain swung his sword, nevertheless.

SLASH!

It carved a great scratch in the roof of the craft, but the changeling managed to roll out the way.

Ravager turned to face Beast Boy, the wind making it a struggle to move.

TH-THUD!

Starfire flew in and delivered to punches to Ravager's chest and face. He stumbled backwards, the unstable roof of the hovercraft making him trip and he fell.

He climbed back to his feet, but both Starfire and Beast Boy had gone.

: T : T : T : T :

PHVIISH!

I cut free the last piece of metal, and clambered inside the hovercraft. To my right, lying on the hold's floor was Professor Simmons. I picked him up and made my way back out of the hole I had cut.

I flew back to where Robin and Cyborg were waiting in the T-Car, now some distance behind. I placed the scientist on the back seats and flew alongside the vehicle. Unfortunately, now the craft had gone too far, and there was no way I was going to be able to catch back up with it.

Robin sighed and spoke into his communicator, "Star, B.B. We have the professor, fall back."

"_Roger, that Robin."_ Came Beast Boy's reply.

: T : T : T : T :

Gradually, Professor Simmons woke up. By the time he actually woke, the emergency services had been and gone. The paramedics had checked on him, said, "He'll be alright in a few minutes. Just let him wake up," and then left.

"Wh-where am I?"

"It's ok, Professor. We are the Titans, we got you free."

Robin grabbed one of his arms and Beast Boy gripped the other, and together they pulled him to his feet.

Robin spoke to him, asked him if he had any idea why the H.I.V.E. and Ravager had tried to capture him, but he had no idea.

"The police said that the robotic arm you were working on must have been taken, when you were kidnapped."

"Oh, that's okay. I'm sure I'll be able to remake it using my notes."

"Would you like us to give you a lift anywhere? Home maybe?"

"Oh no, that's quite alright. I can make my own way, thank-you."

"Well, if you have any information that you think might help, or if there's trouble, you know who to call."

"Oh yes."

"We're the kids who live in a giant T. We're not hard to find."

Simmons laughed. "Don't worry; I know how to find you."

He walked off into the darkness, presumably to wherever he lived, or back to the lab, to pick up where he left off.

Robin turned to us all. "Now, I hope we've all learned a valuable lesson. We need to be a team 24/7 if we want to have any hope of beating the H.I.V.E." Raven sighed behind him. "Now let's get back to the Tower and start training."

Beast Boy piped up. "Dude! No way! You gave us the whole weekend off! Remember?"

Raven smirked, as Robin dejectedly answered. "Fine."

: T : T : T : T :

Professor Simmons put some money into a phone booth slot, and dialed the numbers for S.T.A.R. labs. "Hello? Yes, it's Simmons here… Oh you heard about the kidnapping? Good… Yes, I'm fine. Although I think some time off would be a good idea… Yes, the psychological strain that I was put through… Thank-you for being so understanding… I'll call again to update you in a couple of weeks… Goodbye."

He put the phone down.

He took a few steps away but then stopped.

His face started to melt away…

…Then his long white lab-coat started to recede…

…His white hair grew in length…

…He became quite a bit shorter….

…He grew breasts.

In fact he was no longer 'Professor Simmons'. He had turned into a petite woman. She had neck length black hair and wore a skintight 'costume' of black. On parts of her arms and her breasts was curved 'metal' plating, but when she moved, it had a fluid motion itself. On her hips was a silver belt, although it seemed to be connected with the rest of the black costume. Finally, she had a black 'leather' choker with a 'metal' inscribed G on it.

She held a H.I.V.E. communicator in one hand, she raised it up to her mouth and spoke.

"Brother Blood. This is Gemini. They bought it. Mission accomplished."


End file.
